;:'i 


FROM   THE  LIBRARY  OF 
REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY  HIM  TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Dlrlaion       *^  /^  /-" 


A  HISTORY 


^N  OF  PR//vJ^ 
APR    8    1932 


OF  THE 


BAPTIST  CHURCHES 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


A.  H.  NEWMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

rROFKSSOR  OF  CHURCH   HISTORY,   McMASTER  UNIVtRSlTY,  TORONTO. 


0- 


Revised  Edition 


American  Baptist  Publication  Society, 

1420  Chestnut  Street, 
[PHILADELPHIA. 

1S2  Fifth  Avenue,  256  Washington  Street,  177  Wabash  Avenue, 

New  Yoi;k.                                 Boston.  Chicago. 

516  N.  Eighth  Street,                   279  Elm  Street,  9J  Whhehall  Street, 

St.  Louis,                                   Dallas.  Atlanta. 

MDCCCXCVIII. 


Copyright,  1894  and  1898, 
By  The  Christian  Literature  Company. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Introduction. — Distinctive  Principles. — Relation  to  other  Bodies. 
— Ancient  Perversions  of  Baptism. — Other  Ancient  Perversions. — • 
Medieval  Antipedobaptists. — Medieval  Evangelical  Life. — The  An- 
abaptists.— The  Zwickau  Prophets. — The  Swiss  Anabaptists. — An- 
abaptists of  Silesia,  Austria,  and  Augsburg. — Anabaptists  of  Strass- 
burg  and  Hesse. — Moravian  Anabaptists. — Chiliastic  Anabaptists. 
— Munster  Kingdom. — The  Mennonites. — Italian  and  Polish  ■ 
Anabaptists. — Remarks. — English  General  Baptists. — General  Bap- 
tists.— Particular  Baptists i 


PERIOD    I. 

FROM   THE   ORGANIZATION    OF   THE   FIRST   BAPTIST   CHURCH    IN 
AMERICA   TO   THE   GREAT   AWAKENING   (1639-I740). 

CHAP.  I. — Roger  Williams  and  Liberty  of  Conscience 59 

CHAP.  II. — Roger  Williams  and  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
America. — Williams  and  the  Providence  Baptists. — Arminianism 
and  Laying  on  of  Hands. — Thomas  Olney. — William  Wickenden. — 
Gregory  Dexter. — Chad  Brown .    79 

CHAP.  III. — John  Clarke  and  the  Baptists  of  Newport. — Set- 
tlement of  Rhode  Island. — Providence  Plantations. — Clarke  and 
Liberty  of  Conscience. — Clarke  as  .Counselor  and  Agent. — The 
New  Charter  of  1663. — Clarke  as  a  Baptist. — Holmes,  Lukar,  and 
Weeden. — William  Peckham. — Comer  Accepts  Imposition  of 
Hands. — Six  Principle  Associations 9^ 

CHAP.  IV. — Baptists  in  Massachusetts  to  1652. — New  England 
Puritanism. — The  Antinomian  Controversy. — Baptists  Misunder- 
stood.— Witter  and  Painter. — Law  against  Baptists. — Unfounded 
Charges. — Zeal  in  Persecution. — Chauncy's  Antipedobaptism. — 
Newport  Baptists  at  Lynn. — Clarke's  Defense 1 18 


V'i  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAP.  V. — President  Henry  Dunster  and  the  Baptists. — Dun- 
ster  in  New  England. — President  of  Harvard. — Oriental  Studies. — 
Rejects  Infant  Baptism. — Mitchell's  Experiences. — Proceedings 
against  Dunster. — Conference  on  Infant  Baptism. — A  Humble  Pe- 
tition.— Prosecution,  or  Persecution  ? — Invited  to  Dublin. — Dun- 
ster's  Death  and  Will 139 

CHAP.  VI. — Baptist  Churches  in  Massachusetts  to  1740. — First 
Baptist  Church  of  Wales. — Myles  a  Tester. —  Myles  Holds  a  Bene- 
fice.— Swansea  Exclusiveness. — A  New  Pastor  Wanted. — Act  for 
Support  of  Ministers. — First  Baptist  Church  of  Boston. — Confes- 
sion of  Faith. — A  Disputation. — Thirty  Years  of  Progress. — The 
Half-way  Covenant. — Intolerance  Rebuked. — Persecution  Con- 
tinues.— Mitigation  of  Persecution. — Charles  II.  Rebukes  Intoler- 
ance.— The  Meeting-house  Closed. — Baptists  Tolerated. — Hollis's 
Benefactions. — Comer's  Death 162 

CHAP.  VII. — Baptists  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  Jerseys. — Penn 
and  Pennsylvania. — Pennepek  and  Piscataqua. — Cohansey  and  Phil- 
adelphia.-— The  Keithian,  Quakers. — Mennonites  and  Dunkards. — 
Philadelphia  Association. — Queries  Answered. — A  Dearth  of  Pas- 
tors     200 

CHAP.  VHI. — The  First  Baptists  of  Maine,  South  Carolina, 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Connecticut,  and  New  York. — 
Screven's  Ordination. — Persecution  at  Kittery. — Screven  Goes  to 
Carolina. — Early  Baptists  of  Carolina. — Religious  Destitution. — 
Screven's  Last  Days. — Virginia  Excludes  Dissent. — Early  Baptists 
of  Connecticut. — Wickenden  at  Flushing. — First  Churches  of  New 
York 216 


PERIOD    II. 

from  the  great  awakening  to  the  organization  of  the 
triennial  convention  (1740-1814). 

CHAP.  I. — New  England. — The  Great  Awakening. — The  New 
Lights. — Separates  Become  Baptists. — Isaac  Backus. — Backus  Be- 
comes a  Baptist. — A  Mixed  Church. — First  Church,  Providence. — 
First  Church,  Newport. — Second  Church,  Boston. — Hezekiah 
Smith. — Brown  University. — Tlie  Warren  Association. — Baptists 
in  New  Hampshire. — Vermont  and  Maine. — Statistics 239 

CHAP.  IL — The  Philadelphia  Center. — The  Philadelphia  Asso- 
ciation.— Records  Cellectcd. — A  Baptist  College  Proposed. — Ed- 
wards, Jones,  and  Morgan. — New  York.— New  York  Association.  .    272 

CHAP.  III. — Virginia  and  North  Carolina. — Virginia. — The  Ke- 
tokton    Association. — General    Baptist    Churches. — The    Kehukee 


CONTEXTS.  VU 

PACE 

Association. — Marshall  and  Stearns. — Sandy  Creek  Association. — 
The  Association  Di.ssolved. — Arminianisni. — Philadelphia  Confes- 
sion Adopted. — Rapid  Increase. — Protest  against  Slavery. — Prog- 
ress in  North  Carolina 284 

CHAP.  IV. — South  CarolIxNA  and  Georgia. — Oliver  Hart. — Charles- 
ton Association. — Richard  Furman. — Settlement  of  Georgia. — 
Daniel  Marshall. — The  Georgia  Association. — Henry  Holcombe. — 
The  Powelton  Conference. — Christian  Union. — A  Circular  Ad- 
dress.— ^The  General  Committee. — Colored  Baptists 308 

CHAP.  V. — Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Mis- 
souri, Mississipri,  AND  Louisiana. — Regulars  and  Separates. — 
Middle  Tennessee. — A  German  Church. — Illinois. — Missouri. — 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana t,^t^ 

CHAP.  VI. — Struggles  for  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty  in  New 
England. — A  Threatened  Appeal. — Oppression  at  Ashfield. — An 
Appeal  for  Liberty. — Massachusetts  Praises  Toleration. — Confer- 
ence in  Philadelphia. — Manning's  Memorial. — A  New  Constitution. 
— Liberty  in  Massachusetts,  1833 347 

CHAP.  VII. — The  Struggle  for  Liberty  of  Conscience  in  Vir- 
ginia.— Prayer  for  Persecutors. — Marriage  Law. — Repeal  of  In- 
corporating Act. — Washington  and  the  Baptists. — Jefferson  and  the 
Baptists 365 


PERIOD    III. 
from  the  organization  of  the  triennial  convention  to 

THE    present    time    (1814-1894). 

CHAP.  I. — Retrospect  and  Prospect. — Early  Educational  Ef- 
forts.— Illiterate  Preachers. — Early  Missionary  Societies. — The  Ad- 
vance Movement 

CHAP.  II. — The  Triennial  Convention  (1814-45). — Conversion 
of  the  Judsons. — The  News  Reaches  America. — General  Conven- 
tion.— Ministerial  Education. — Home  Mission  Work. — Columbian 
College. — Restriction  of  Effort. — State  Conventions. — New  Eng- 
land Conventions. — Education  in  South  Carolina. — Education  in 
New  York. — Education  in  Georgia. —  Illinois  and  North  Carolina. 
— Education  in  Virginia. — Indiana  and  Kentucky  Colleges 388 

CHAP.  III. — The  Triennial  Convention,  Continued. — Home  Mis- 
sions.— Religious  Newspapers. — Newspapers  and  Reviews. — 
Baptist  Tract  Society. — Baptists  Protest. — Bible  Controversies. — 
End  of  Bible  Controversy. — Anti-effort  Baptists. — Opposition  to 
Missions. — Causes  of  Opposition. — Progress  Notwhhstanding  ....   419 


379 


viii  COXTEXTS. 

PAGE 

CHAP.  IV. — The  Southern  Baptist  Convextion. — Fuller  and 
Wayland  on  Slavery. — Southern  Dissatisfaction. — Division  Inevi- 
table.— Southern  Baptist  Convention. — Cooperation  with  other  So- 
cieties.— Home  Mission  Board. — The  Cuban  Mission. — Mountain 
Work. — Foreign  Mission  Work.— "  Omissionary  "  Baptists. — The 
Colored  Baptists. — Theological  Seminary 443 

CHAP.  V. — Northern,  National,  and  Lnternational  Societies, 
AND  Educational  Institutions  (1845-94). — Missionary  Union. 
— Foreign  Missions. — Home  Missions.- — Publication  Society. — 
Education  Society. — Historical  Society,  and  Congress. — Education  .    46.S 

CHAP.  VI. — Divisions  and  Parties,  and  Concluding  Remarks. 
— The  Seventh-day  Baptists. — The  Disciples. — Baptists  and  Dis- 
ciples.— Old-Landmarkism. — Free-will  Baptists. — The  Christians. 
— Other  Baptist  Parties 484 


A    HISTORY   OF 
THE    BAPTISTS   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


ALBERT   HENRY   NEWMAN,   D.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Chirch  History  in  McMaster  Um\ersitv,  Toronto,  Canada. 


CORRECTIONS  AND  OBSERVATIONS. 


r.  50.  I  am  informed  that  in  some  article  unknown 
to  me  Dr.  W,  H.  Whitsitt  had  set  forth  the  facts 
regarding  Mark  Lukar. 

Pp.  62-69.  Since  the  pubhcation  of  the  volume  I 
have  had  my  attention  called  to  an  act  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Council  (1676)  rescinding  the  decree  of  banishment 
against  Roger  Williams.  Recognition  is  made  of  his 
services  to  the  colony  in  the  Indian  war,  and  his  friendly 
bearing  in  general,  and  it  is  declared  that  "  he  shall  have 
liberty  to  repayre  into  any  of  our  Towns  for  his  security 
and  Comfortable  abode  during  these  Public  Troubles, 
He  behaving  himself  peaceably  and  inoffensively  and  not 
disseminating  and  venting  any  of  his  different  opinions 
in  matters  of  religion  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  any." 

P.  80.  The  foot-note,  though  correct  in  form,  possibly 
puts  the  case  with  undue  dogmatism.  The  fact  is,  that 
only  one  contemporary  (William  Coddington)  refers  to 
the  form  of  Williams's  baptism.  Coddington  writing 
long  afterward  (1677)  accuses  Williams  of  at  one  time 
maintaining  that  "  men  and  women  must  be  plunged 
into  the  water."  This  could  apply  only  to  the  short 
time  that  he  remained  in  connection  with  the  Providence 
Baptist  Church  that  he  founded.  Coddington  was  at 
Newport  in  1639,  and  may  be  presumed  to  have  been 
cognizant  of  the  particulars  of  the  new  baptism  intro- 
duced at  Providence.  Other  notices  from  the  writings 
of  Williams  himself  and  his  contemporaries  are  non-com- 
mittal. This  question  has  recently  been  fully  discussed 
by  Dr.  W.  H.  Whitsitt,  who  thinks  immersion  improb- 
able ("  A  Question  in  Baptist  History,"  Louisville,  Ky., 
1896,  pp.  147  seq.),  and  by  Dr.  H.  M.  King,  who  states 
exhaustively  the  case  in  favor  of  immersion  ("  The  Bap- 
tism of  Roger  Williams,"  Providence,  1897). 

P.  218.  The  records  of  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
Boston,  recently  examined  by  the  present  pastor.  Dr. 
N.  E.  Wood,  show  that  Screven  was  baptized  there  in 
1681.  He  was  not  therefore  the  Scriven  that  signed  the 
Somerset  Confession  in  1656. 

P.  235.  The  statement  regarding  the  solitariness  of 
the  Block  Island  Baptist  Church  is  not  quite  accurate. 

X 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


The  literature  on  the  antipedobaptist  movements  of  the  medieval  and  Ref- 
ormation times  is  too  voluminous  to  be  here  given.  A  selection  of  a  few  of 
the  more  important  works  bearing  upon  the  history  of  English  Baptists  is  all 
that  seems  practicable.  Most  of  the  works  referred  to  in  the  Bibliography 
of  vol.  iii.  of  the  present  series  are  of  interest  to  the  student  of  Baptist 
history.  Colonial  records  are  among  the  most  valuable  sources.  For  the 
later  period,  files  of  denominational  newspapers  and  magazines,  minutes  of 
Associations,  reports  of  denominational  societies,  State  and  national,  and 
controversial  pamphlets  may  be  consulted  with  profit.  Morton's  "  New  Eng- 
land's Memorial";  Lechford's  "  Plain  Dealing";  Winslow's  "Good  News 
from  New  England  "  ;  Willard's  "  A'c  Suior  ultra  Crepidam  "  ;  Uhden's  "  New 
England  Theocracy";  Chauncy's  "  Seasonable  Thoughts  "  ;  and  Edwards's 
works  bearing  on  the  Great  Awakening,  may  be  referred  to  in  this  brief  way. 

The  treatises  on  Systematic  Theology,  by  Drs.  A.  Hovey,  A.  H.  Strong, 
E.  Dodge,  E.  H.  Johnson,  W.  N.  Clarke,  J.  P.  Boyce,  and  E.  G.  Robinson, 
may  be  referred  to  as  illustrating  the  unity  and  variety  of  Baptist  doctrinal 
teaching.  The  controversial  writings  of  Isaac  Backus  are  too  numerous  to 
be  referred  to  individually,  but  are  of  primary  importance. 

I.  English  Baptist  PIistory. 

Barclay,  Robert,   The  Inner  Life  of  the  Religions  Societies  of  the  Covnnon- 

loealth.      3d  ed.,  London,  1879. 
Clifford,  John  (editor),  Tlie  English  Baptists.      London,  1881. 
Crosby,  Thomas,   llie  History  of  the  English  Baptists.     4  vols.,  London, 

1738-1740- 
Evans,  B.,   The  Early  English  Baptists.     2  vols.,  London,  1862. 
Goadby,  Thomas,  By-paths  0/ Baptist  History.      London,  1871. 
Gould,  Geo.,  Open  Co/nmunion  and  the  Baptists  of  N'onvich.      Norwich, 

1  Sbo. 
Ivimey,   Joseph,  .4  History  of  the  English  Baptists.     4  vols.,  London, 

1811-1830. 
Masson,  David,  Life  of  John  Milton,  and  History  of  his  Time.      6  vols., 

London,  1859-1880. 
Publications  of  the  Hanserd  Alwllys  Society.      10  vols.,  London,  1846  .f<v/. 
Taylor,   Adam,    The  History  of  the  English   General  Baptists.      2  vols., 

London,  1818. 

si 


BIBLIOGRAPIIY. 


II.   English  and  American  l!.\riisi-  History. 

Armitage,  Thomas,  A  History  of  the  Baptists.      New  York,  1887. 
Benedict,   David,   A    General  History   of  the  Baptist  Denomination    in 
America  and  Other  Parts  of  the  IVorld.     New  York,  1848. 

,  Fifty  Years  among  the  Baptists.     New  York,  i860. 

Cook,  R.  B.,  Story  of  the  Baptists.      Baltimore,  1884. 

Cramp,  J.  M.,  Baptist  History.      Pliiladelpliia. 

Vedder,  Henry  C,  Short  History  of  the  Baptists.     Philadelphia,  1892. 

III.  American  Baptist  History. 

Adlam,  S.,  Origin  of  the  Institutions  of  Rhode  Island.      Providence,  1871. 
Allen,  I.  M.,   I  he  i'nited  .States  Baptist  Annual  I\\gister  and  Almanac. 

Phihidclphia,   1833. 
Arnold,  S.  G.,  History  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Is/and.     Vol.  i.,  New  York, 

1859. 
Asplund,  John,   The   Universal  Register  of  the  Baptist  Denomination  in 

A'orth  Anienca,  for  the  Years  I'/go,  ijgi,  Jjgs,  lygj,  and  part  of  /"/g^. 

Boston,  1794. 
Babcock,  R.,  Memoir  of  J.  M.  Peck.      Philadelphia,  1864. 
Backus,  Isaac,  A  History  of  A\'io  England.       With  Particular  Reference 

to  the  Denomination  of  Christians  called  Baptists.      2d  ed.,  with  Notes 

by  D.  Weston.     2  vols.      Newton,  1871. 
Baptist  Home  Missions  in  A-orth  America,  18J2-1S82.      New  York,  1883. 
Barrows,  C.  E.,  Historical  Sketch  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  A^ewport, 

R.  I.     Newport,  1876. 
,  The  Development  of  Baptist  Principles  in  Rhode  Island.      Philadel- 
phia. 
Bitting,  C.  C,  Bible  Societies  and  the  Baptists.      Philadelphia,  1883. 
Boykin,  S.,  Memoir  of  Adiel  Shenvood,  D.D.      Philadelphia,  1884. 
Broaddus,  A.  (Jr.),  The  Sermons  and  Other  Writings  of  the  Rev.  Andrew 

Broaddus.     1 1  'ith  a  Memoir  of  his  Life  'by  J.  B.  Jeter,  D.  D.     New  York, 

Colby,  1852. 
Broadus,  J.  A.,  Memoir  of  J.  P.  Boyce.     New  York,  1893. 
Brown,  J.  N.,  History  of  the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society  [1824- 

1856].      Philadelphia. 
Burkitt,  Lemuel,  and  Read,  Jesse,  A.    Concise  History  of  the  K'ehukee 

Baptist  .Issociation.      Revised  ed.,  Philadelphia,  1850. 
Burrage,  Henry  S.,  A  History  of  the  Baptists  in  AVw  England.      Phila- 
delphia, 1894. 

,  Baptist  Ilymn-ivriters  and  their  Hvmns.      Portland,  1888. 

,   The  Act  of  Baptism.      Philadelphia,  1879. 

Caldwell,  S.  M.",  and  Gammell,  W.,  History  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 

in  Providence,  /6jg-/Syy.      Providence,  1877. 
Callender,  John,  An  Historical  Discourse  on  the  Civil  and  Religious  Affairs 

of  the   Colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providoice  Plantations.      Boston, 

1739;  reprinted  with  Notes  by  Elton,  1838. 
Campbell,  Alexander,  The  Christian  Baptist  [1822-1830].      Cincinnati, 

1880. 
,  The  Millennial  Harbinger,  iSjo-iSjo. 


BrBLTOGRAPiry.  xiit 

Campbell,  J.  H.,  Georgia  Baplisls.      Macon,  1874. 

Cathcart,  W.,  The  Baptist  Enevr/opirdia.  2  vols.,  Pliiladt-lpliia,  Everts, 
iSSi. 

,   The  Baptists  and  the  Aiiierieaii  Kevohitioii.      I'hiladelpliia. 

Chaplin,  J,,  Life  of  Henry  Dunster.      Boston,  1872. 

Clarke,  John,  ///  Newes  from  iVerv  England ;  or,  A  A'arrative  of  A'eio 
Eiig/and^s  Persecution.  London,  1652;  reprinted  in  "Collections 
of  the   Massachusetts   Historical   Societv, "  4th  series,  vol.   ii.,  Boston, 

iS54. 

Comer,  John,   The  Diary  of      Philadelphia,  1892. 

Cook,  R.  B.,  The  Early  and  Later  Delaware  Baptists.  Philadelphia,  Am. 
Bapt.   I'ul).  Soc,  1880. 

Cox,  F.  A.,  and  Hoby,  J.,  The  Baptists  in  America.     New  York,  1836. 

Crane,  C.  B.,  I'irst  Jniptist  Church,  Boston:  Bi-Centenary  Commemoration. 
Boston,  1865. 

Curry,  J.  L.  M.,  Struggles  and  Triumphs  of  Virginia  Baptists.  Phila- 
delphia, 1873. 

Curtis,  T.  r.,  The  Progress  of  Baptist  Principles  in  the  Last  LIundred 
Years.      Boston,  i860. 

Cuthbert,  J.  H.,  Life  of  Dr.  Richard  Puller.     New  York,  1879. 

Cutting,  S.  S.,  Historical  Vindications.      Boston,  1859. 

Denison,  F,,  Azotes  on  the  Baptists  and  their  Principles  in  A^onvich,  Conn. 
N(jrwich,  1857. 

Dexter,  Henry  M,,  As  to  Roger  Williams.     Boston,  1876. 

Duncan,  R.  S.,  ./  Histojy  of  the  Baptists  in  Missouri.      St.  Louis,  1883. 

Dunster,  S.,  J/istoiy  of  the  Dunster  Painily.      Boston,  1876. 

Edwards,  Morgan,  Materials  for  a  L/istory  of  the  American  Baptists: 
Vol.  i.,  JLaterials  to7vards  a  History  of  the  Baptists  in  L\njnsvli'ania,  both 
British  and  Ger/imn.  Philadelphia,  1770.  Vol.  ii.,  Materials  towanls 
a  History  of  tJte  Baptists  of  Jersey.      Philadelphia,  1792. 

-,  Materials  for  a  History  of  the  Baptists  of  Rhode  Island.    In  "  Rhode 

Island  Historical  Collections,"  vok  vi. 
-,  Materials   tinvards  a   History  of  the   Baptists   in   Delaware   State. 


Philadelphia,  1885. 

Everts,  W.  W,,   William  Colgate.     Philadelphia,  1881. 

Furman,  Wood,  A  History  of  the  Charleston  [S.  C.]  Association.     Charles- 
ton, iSii. 

Gammell,  W.,  Life  of  Roger  Williams.     Boston,  1844. 

Guild,  R.  A.,  History  of  Bro%vn  University.     Providence,  1867. 

,  Life,  Jouimals,  Letters,  and  Addresses  of  the  Rev.  Hezekiah  Smith, 

D.D.',  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  1737-1803.      Philadelphia,  1885. 
-,  Life.  Times,  and  Correspondence  of  James  Manniiig.     Boston,  1864. 


'H.a.gw.e,  William,  An  Historical  Discou>se:  .  .  .  .Second  Centennial  An- 
niversary of  the  Pirst  Baptist  Church  in  Providence,  R.  I.  Providence, 
1839. 

IListory  of  the  Baptist  Denomination  in  Georgia.  Compiled  for  the  "  Chris- 
tian Index."     Atlanta,  1881. 

Holcombe,  Henry,  The  Pirst-fruits.     Philadelphia,  1812. 

Holcombe,  Hosea,  .-/  History  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Baptists  in 
Alalmma.      Philadelphia,  1840. 

Hovey,  Alvah,  A  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  the  Rev.  Lsaac  Backus, 
A.M.     Boston,  1859. 


X  i  \'  BIBLIO  GKA  PII  \ : 

Jeter,  J.  B.,  Caniphcllisni  F.xamiiicd.      New  York,   1857. 

,  Caiiipbt'Uisni  Recxainincd.      New  ^'ork,   1857. 

,  Life  of  Dcuiicl  Witt. 

Jones,  H.  G.,  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Louver  Diihliii  (or  Peniiepek)  Baptist 
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,  History  of  the  Po.xboroi/gh  InTptist  Chiircli  of  Philadelphia.  Phila- 
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,  Memoirs  of  Elder  Jesse  A/ercer.      New  York,  1844. 

Mercer,  Jesse,  .-/  L/istory  of  the  Georgia  Baptist  Association. 

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INTRODUCTION. 


I.    DISTINCTIVE    PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    BAPTISTS. 

The  name  "  Baptist  "  was  not  a  self-chosen  one.  In 
the  early  Reformation  time  those  who  withdrew  from  the 
dominant  churches  because  of  the  failure  of  these  churches 
to  discriminate  between  the  church  and  the  world,  between 
the  regenerate  and  the  unregenerate,  and  who  sought  to 
organize  churches  of  believers  only,  laid  much  stress  on 
the  lack  of  Scriptural  warrant  for  the  baptism  of  infants 
and  on  the  incompatibility  of  infant  baptism  with  regenerate 
membership.  Following  what  they  believed  to  be  apostolic 
precept  and  example,  they  made  baptism  on  a  profession 
of  faith  a  condition  of  church-fellowship.  This  rejection 
of  infant  baptism  and  this  insistence  on  believers'  baptism 
were  so  distinctive  of  these  Christians  that  they  were  stig- 
matized as  "  Anabaptists,"  "  Catabaptists,"  and  sometimes 
as  simply  "  Baptists  "  ;  that  is  to  sa}-,  they  were  declared  to 
be  "  rebaptizers,"  "  perx'erters  of  baptism,"  or,  as  unduly 
magnifying  baptism  and  making  it  the  occasion  of  schism, 
simply  "  baptizers."  These  party  names  they  earnestly 
repudiated,  preferring  to  call  themselves  Brethren,  Christ- 
ians, Disciples  of  Christ,  Believers,  etc. 

Some  of  the  distinctive  principles  of  Baptists  have  al- 
ready been  referred  to.  The  following  enumeration  may 
not  be  out  of  place  : 

I.  Baptists  of  all  parties  have,  from  the  beginning,  per- 
sistently and  consistently  maintained  the  absolute  suprem- 

I 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

acy  of  the  canonical  Scriptures  as  a  norm  of  faith  and 
practice.  They  have  insisted  on  applying  the  Scripture 
test  positively  and  negatively  to  every  detail  of  doctrine 
and  practice.  It  has  never  seemed  to  them  sufficient  to 
show  that  a  doctrine  or  practice,  made  a  matter  of  faith, 
is  not  contradictory  of  Scripture ;  it  must  be  distinctly  a 
matter  of  Scripture  precept  or  example  to  command  their 
allegiance  or  secure  from  them  a  recognition  of  its  right 
to  exist. 

2.  The  application  of  this  principle  that  has  done  more 
than  any  other  to  put  Baptists  at  variance  with  other 
evangelical  Christians  regards  the  matter  of  infant  bap- 
tism. Baptists  have  failed  to  find  Scriptural  authorization, 
whether  by  precept  or  example,  for  the  administration  of 
baptism  to  infants.  They  have  persistently  maintained 
that  this  practice  is  not  only  non- Scriptural,  but  that  it  is 
distinctly  contra-Scriptural ;  that  it  is  not  merely  the  in- 
troduction of  a  rite  not  authorized  by  Scripture,  yet  inno- 
cent and  useful,  but  a  complete  perversion  of  one  of  the 
two  ordinances  that  our  Lord  gave  to  his  church  for  the 
symbolical  setting-  forth  of  the  great  truths  of  redemption. 
Believing  that  baptism  merely  symbolizes  but  does  not 
bestow  or  condition  regeneration,  they  have  regarded  it  as 
preposterous  that  the  symbol  should  antedate  by  years  the 
thing  symbolized  ;  nay,  that  the  symbolical  rite  should  be 
bestowed  without  any  assurance  that  the  thing  symbolized 
would  ever  occur. 

But  not  only  have  Baptists  agreed  in  regarding  infant 
baptism  as  without  Scriptural  warrant  and  as  a  perversion 
of  an  ordinance  established  by  Christ,  but  they  have  al- 
ways insisted  that  it  is  in  a  very  high  degree  destructive 
of  the  true  conception  of  the  church  as  composed  exclu- 
sively of  regenerate  persons.  If  baptism  in  unconscious 
infancy    entitle   a   person   to    church-membership,  in   any 


DISTIXCTIVE   PRIXCirLES.  3 

sense,  and  do  not  actually  work  regeneration,  and  if  those 
who  have  been  thus  baptized  are  admitted  to  all  the  priv- 
ileges of  church-membership  after  a  period  of  somewhat 
formal  instruction,  without  evidence  of  change  of  heart, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  members  of  such  communions 
are  sure  to  be  unregenerate  persons.  Moreover,  Baptists 
have  regarded  infant  baptism  as  the  almost  necessary  con- 
comitant of  a  state  church.  If  there  be  an  established 
form  of  Christianity  in  any  particular  state,  it  must,  ac- 
cording to  the  medieval  conception,  be  coextensive  in  its 
membership  with  the  population  of  the  state.  If  member- 
ship in  the  church  depended  upon  the  conversion  and  the 
baptism  on  a  profession  of  faith  of  each  individual,  such  a 
coincidence  of  church-membership  with  population  would 
be  out  of  the  question.  Hence,  apparently,  the  deter- 
mination that  the  friends  of  church  establishments  have 
always  shown  to  maintain  infant  baptism  at  whatever  cost. 

3.  No  less  prominent  has  been  the  contention  of  Bap- 
tists for  regenerate  membership.  They  have  persistently 
maintained  that  the  New  Testament  conception  of  the 
church  universal  is  that  of  the  entire  body  of  those  that 
have  become  personally  partakers  of  the  salvation  of 
Christ ;  that  the  New  Testament  idea  of  a  local  church  is 
that  of  a  body  of  believers  who  ha\'e  been  regenerated 
and  sanctified.  This  principle,  far  more  than  the  rejec- 
tion of  infant  baptism,  or  insistence  on  believers'  baptism, 
or  contention  for  the  precise  New  Testament  form  of  bap- 
tism, has  always  been  fundamental  with  Baptists.  The 
baptism  of  infants  has  been  rejected  not  simply  because  it 
is  non-Scriptural,  but  even  more  because  of  its  incompati- 
bility with  regenerate  membership. 

4.  Believing  that  faith  is  a  matter  between  the  individ- 
ual man  and  God,  Baptists  -have,  from  the  beginning  of 
their  denominational  history,  regarded  as  an  enormity  any 


4 


ixriwDccriox. 


attempt  to  force  the  conscience,  or  to  constrain  men  by 
outward  penalties  to  this  or  that  form  of  rehgious  belief. 
Persecution  may  make  men  hypocrites,  but  true  Christians 
never.  Their  advocacy  of  absolute  liberty  of  conscience 
has  been  due  not  simply  to  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
the  suffering  parties,  but  is  rather  a  logical  result  of  their 
fundamental  principles. 

5.  Insistence  on  immersion  as  the  only  allowable  form 
of  baptism  should  not  be  omitted  from  an  enumeration  of 
Baptist  principles ;  neither  should  it  have  the  prominent 
place  that  many  opponents  are  wont  to  give  it.  The  un- 
compromising position  that  Baptists  have  long  held  on  this 
matter  is  a  corollary  of  their  maintenance  of  the  authority 
and  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture  as  a  norm  of  faith  and 
practice,  and  their  firm  conviction  that  the  outward  act 
commanded  by  Christ  and  exemplified  by  Christ  and  his 
immediate  followers  was  the  immersion  of  believers  in 
water.  Anything  short  of  complete  immersion  they  have 
long  been  unanimous  in  regarding  as  an  impertinent  sub- 
stitute for  that  which  Christ  appointed,  and  as  voiding  the 
ordinance  of  its  true  symbolical  significance. 

II.    RELATION    OF    BAPTISTS   TO    OTHER    BODIES    OF 
CHRISTIANS. 

While  on  the  points  of  doctrine  and  practice  already 
considered  Baptists  believe  that  they  have  occupied  a 
position  that  has  advantageously  differentiated  them  from 
all  other  bodies  of  Christians,  they  rejoice  to  see  that 
many  of  the  principles  for  which  they  have  stood  in  the 
past  have  become  the  common  possessions  of  evangelical 
Christendom.  The  doctrine  of  the  supremacy  and  suf- 
ficiency of  Scripture  as  a  norm  of  faith  and  practice  was 
professed  by  the  great  Protestant  leaders  of  the  sixteenth 


KELAriOX    TO    OTHER   BODIES.  5 

century  ;  but  they  were  driven  by  observation  of  what 
seemed  to  them  the  ruinous  consequences  of  the  practical 
carrying  out  of  tliis  principle  essentially  to  modify  their 
statement  of  the  doctrine.  Most  evangelical  denomina- 
tions of  the  present  time  profess  to  make  the  Scriptures 
supreme,  yet,  on  grounds  that  seem  to  Baptists  wholly 
inadmissible,  many  of  them  refuse  to  accept  the  findings 
of  the  best  evangelical  scholarship  of  the  age  as  to  the 
subjects  and  mode  of  New  Testament  baptism. 

Baptists  have,  for  the  most  part,  been  at  one  with  the 
Roman  Catholic,  the  Greek  CathoHc,  and  most  Protestant 
communions  in  accepting  for  substance  the  so-called 
Apostles',  Nicene,  and  Athanasian  creeds,  not,  however, 
because  they  are  venerable  or  because  of  the  decisions  of 
ecclesiastical  councils,  but  because,  and  only  in  so  far  as, 
they  have  appeared  to  them  to  be  in  accord  with  Script- 
ure. Yet  some  Baptist  parties  have  not  merely  repudi- 
ated all  extra-Scriptural  definitions  of  doctrine,  but  have 
interpreted  the  Scriptures  in  such  a  manner  as  to  put  them- 
selves at  variance  with  these  ancient  formulae. 

Their  utter  rejection  of  sacerdotalism,  ritualism,  and  all 
forms  of  ceremonialism  has  put  them  out  of  harmony 
with  all  religious  parties  that  stand  for  sacerdotal  and 
ritualistic  practices. 

As  regards  the  set  of  doctrines  on  which  Augustin  dif- 
fered from  his  theological  predecessors,  and  modern  Cal- 
vinists  from  Arminians,  Baptists  have  always  been  divided. 
The  medieval  evangelical  sects  were  all,  apparently,  anti- 
Augustinian,  and  the  Baptist  parties  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury followed  in  the  footsteps  of  their  medieval  spiritual 
ancestors  in  this  and  other  important  particulars.  Those 
Baptist  parties  of  modern  times  whose  historical  relations 
with  the  medieval  evangelical  parties  and  the  antipedobap- 
tist  parties  of  the  sixteenth  century  are  most  intimate  have 


6  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

rejected  the  Calvinistic  system ;  while  those  that  owe  their 
origin  to  EngHsh  Puritanism,  with  WicHfism  and  Lollard- 
ism  behind  it  and  with  the  deeply  rooted  Calvinism  of  the 
English  Elizabethan  age  as  its  leading  characteristic,  have 
been  noted  for  their  staunch  adherence  to  Calvinistic  prin- 
ciples, not,  of  course,  because  of  any  supposed  authority 
of  Calvin  or  of  the  English  Puritan  leaders,  but  because  they 
have  seemed  to  them  to  be  Scriptural.  Calvinistic  and 
Arminian  Baptists  have  both  had  periods  of  extreme  de- 
velopment, the  former  sometimes  scarcely  escaping  fatal- 
ism and  antinomianism,  the  latter  sometimes  falling  into 
Socinian  denial  of  the  deity  of  Christ  and  Pelagian  denial 
of  original  sin.  The  great  majority  of  the  Baptists  of  to- 
day hold  to  what  may  be  called  moderate  Calvinism,  or 
Calvinism  tempered  with  the  evangelical  anti-Augustin- 
ianism  which  came  through  the  Moravian  Brethren  to 
Wesley  and  by  him  was  brought  powerfully  to  bear  on  all 
bodies  of  evangelical  Christians. 

Baptists  are  at  one  with  the  great  Congregational  body 
and  with  most  of  the  minor  denominations  as  regards 
church  government.  Holding  firmly  to  the  universal 
priesthood  of  believers,  they  insist  upon  the  equality  of 
rights  and  privileges  of  all  church-members,  but  follow 
the  New  Testament  precept  and  example  in  so  far  differ- 
entiating the  functions  of  the  members  as  to  bring  into 
effectiveness  the  gifts  and  graces  of  each  and  to  provide 
for  the  watch-care  and  edification  of  the  entire  body  and 
for  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  through  prop- 
erly directed  effort.  The  officers  of  the  congregation  not 
only  owe  their  appointment  to  the  vote  of  the  entire 
church,  but  hold  their  positions  only  so  long  as  seems 
good  to  the  church.  Some  of  the  antipedobaptist  parties 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  folhnving  in  the  footsteps  of  their 
.spiritual  ancestors  of  the  medieval  time  (VValdenses,  Bohe- 


RELATION    TO    OTHER   BODIES.  7 

mian  Brethren,  etc.),  adopted  a  system  of  general  superin- 
tendency,  as  did  the  Moravian  Brethren  and  the  Methodists 
in  more  recent  times  under  similar  influences.  Regarding 
themselves  as  essentially  a  missionary  church,  and  being 
under  the  stress  of  almost  continuous  persecution,  they 
felt  the  need  of  strong  administrative  heads  for  the  direc- 
tion of  missionary  effort,  for  administering  the  resources 
of  the  connection  in  times  of  persecution  and  distress,  and 
for  guarding  the  body  from  the  inroads  of  error.  But 
English  and  American  Baptists  have  been  from  the  first, 
with  trifling  exceptions,  ardent  advocates  of  independency, 
and  this  principle  has  at  times  been  so  overemphasized  as 
to  interfere  seriously  with  concerted  action  of  any  kind, 
and  with  the  growth  of  denominational  spirit.  It  is  only 
within  the  last  hundred  years  that  Baptists  have  come  to 
realize  the  power  there  is  in  associated  effort  in  home  and 
foreign  missionary  work,  in  education,-  in  publication,  etc. 
Baptists  believe  that  through  their  conventions,  associa- 
tions, advisory  councils,  missionary,  publication,  and  edu- 
cational boards,  with  their  efficient  administrative  officers, 
they  have  secured,  without  in  any  way  interfering  with 
the  autonomy  of  the  indi\idual  congregations,  most  of  the 
advantages  of  prelatical  and  presbyterial  organization. 

The  attitude  of  Baptists  toward  Christian  union  is  often 
misconceived  and  adversely  judged  by  their  brethren  of 
other  denominations.  Baptists  earnestly  desire  Christian 
union,  and  believe  that  it  will  come  in  due  time;  but  they 
insist  that  efforts  for  union,  to  be  permanently  effective, 
must  be  along  the  line  of  a  better  understanding  of  the 
word  of  God  and  more  complete  loyalty  thereto,  rather 
than  along  the  line  of  compromise.  They  are  themselves 
anxious  to  be  instructed  in  the  word  of  God  more  per- 
fectly, and  are  ready  to  abandon  any  position  that  can  be 
shown  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  apostolic  precept  or  ex- 


8  IXTRODUCriOX. 

ample.  That  the  scholars  of  all  denominations,  including 
Roman  Catholic,  Anglican,  Lutheran,  and  Reformed,  are 
so  nearly  in  agreement  as  regards  the  leading  features  of 
the  apostolic  church,  including  the  nature  of  church  or- 
ganization, the  character  and  functions  of  church  officers, 
the  number  and  character  of  the  ordinances,  etc.,  and  that 
the  consensus  of  scholarship  is  so  nearly  in  accord  with 
the  traditional  Baptist  interpretation  of  Scripture,  is  highh- 
gratifying  to  Baptists,  and  encourages  them  to  believe  that 
the  development  of  Christian  life  and  practice  will  be  in 
the  direction  of  greater  uniformity,  and  that  the  church  of 
the  future  will  more  and  more  approximate  the  Baptist 
position.  This  they  desire  only  so  far  as  the  Baptist  posi- 
tion shall  be  proved  by  the  best  Christian  scholarship  to 
be  the  Scriptural  position. 

III.    ANCIENT    AND    MEDIEVAL    ANTIPEDOBAPTISTS. 

The  claim  of  Baptists  that  their  doctrine  and  polity  are 
in  substantial  accord  with  the  precept  and  example  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles  would  seem  to  make  it  incumbent 
on  their  historian  to  explain  the  early  departure  of  the 
great  mass  of  Christians  from  the  apostolic  standard. 
Christianity  arose  in  the  midst  of  religious  ferment.  The 
philosophies  and  theosophies  of  the  East  were  never 
more  active  and  aggressive  than  during  the  first  three 
Christian  centuries.  Before  the  close  of  the  apostolic  age 
Gnosticism  in  some  of  its  most  dangerous  forms  wa.s.  se- 
riously threatening  the  life  of  the  churches.  Belief  in  the 
magical  efficacy  of  external  rites  was  a  universal  feature  of 
paganism,  and  the  corrupted  Judaism  of  the  early  Christ- 
ian age  cooperated  with  theosophical  paganism  in  fixing 
this  feature  on  the  early  churches.  Sacerdotalism  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  ceremonialism,  and  the  pagan  idea  of 


ANCIENT  PERVERSIONS   OE  BAPTISM.  g 

the  priest  as  a  mediator  between  God  and  man  and  as  the 
exclusive  manipulator  of  magical  religious  ceremonies 
was  not  long  in  making  its  impression  on  the  Christian 
churches.  A  careful  comparison  of  the  Christian  litera- 
ture of  the  second  and  tliird  centuries  with  the  New  Tes- 
tament writings  cannot  fail  to  reveal  the  transformation  of 
the  church  in  doctrine  and  life  under  pagan  influence. 

Early  in  the  second  century  the  idea  became  prevalent 
that  while  instruction  in  Christian  truth  and  morals,  re- 
pentance, faith,  fasting,  and  prayer  must  precede  baptism, 
the  remission  of  sins  takes  place  only  in  connection  with 
the  baptismal  act.  Such  is  the  teaching  of  the  "  Pastor" 
of  Hernias  (about  A.D.  139)  and  of  Justin  Martyr  (about 
A.D.  150).  By  the  close  of  the  second  century  the  pagan 
view  that  water  baptism  possesses  in  itself  magical  efificacy 
begins  to  find  expression.  "  Is  it  not  wonderful,  too," 
writes  Tertullian,  "  that  death  should  be  washed  away  by 
bathing?  "  To  justify  such  ascription  of  eflficacy  to  water 
baptism  he  expatiates  on  the  age  and  the  dignity  of  water. 
"  Water  was  the  first  to  produce  that  which  had  life,  that 
it  might  be  no  wonder  in  baptism  if  water  know  how  to 
give  life."  "  All  waters,  therefore,  in  virtue  of  the  pristine 
privilege  of  their  origin,  do,  after  invocation  of  God,  attain 
the  sacramental  power  of  sanctifi cation."  In  the  Gnos- 
tic "  Pistis  Sophia,"  Christ  is  represented  as  sa}-ing:  "  If 
any  one  hath  received  the  mysteries  of  baptism,  those 
mysteries  become  a  great  fire,  exceeding  strong  and  wise, 
so  as  to  burn  up  all  the  sins,"  etc.  The  Ebionitic  writer  of 
the  "  Clemen-tine  Recognitions  "  thus  represents  the  effects 
of  baptism  :  "  If,  therefore,  any  one  be  found  smeared  with 
sins  and  lusts  as  with  pitch,  the  fire  easily  gets  the  mas- 
tery of  him.  But  if  the  tow  be  not  steeped  in  the  pitch 
of  sin,  but  in  the  water  of  purification  and  regeneration, 
the   fire  of  the  demons  shall  not  be  able  to  kindle  in  it." 


lO  INTRODUCTIOX. 

With  such  passages,  of  which  many  more  might  be  quoted, 
may  be  compared  the  following  from  the  orthodox  Cyp- 
rian :  "  For  as  scorpions  and  serpents,  which  prevail  on  the 
dry  ground,  when  cast  into  the  water  cannot  prevail  nor 
retain  their  venom,  so  also  the  wicked  spirits  .  .  .  cannot 
remain  any  longer  in  the  body  of  a  man  in  whom,  baptized 
and  sanctified,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  beginning  to  dwell." 

Side  by  side  with  the  idea  of  the  efficacy  of  water  bap- 
tism there  had  grown  up  among  Christians  the  conviction 
that  apart  from  baptism  there  is  no  salvation  even  for  un- 
conscious infants.  This  conviction  seems  first  to  have 
found  expression  in  Gnostic  and  Ebionitic  writings,  but  it 
had  become  pretty  general  before  the  middle  of  the  third 
century.  In  the  "Clementine  Recognitions"  (vi.  8,9), 
Peter  is  represented  as  saying:  "And  do  you  suppose  that 
you  can  have  hope  toward  God,  even  if  you  cultivate  all 
piety  and  all  righteousness,  but  do  not  receive  baptism? 
.  .  .  When  you  are  regenerated  and  born  again  of  water 
and  of  God,  the  frailty  of  your  former  birth,  which  you 
have  through  men,  is  cut  off,  and  so  at  length  you  shall 
be  able  to  attain  salvation  ;  but  otherwise  it  is  impossible. 
.  .  .  Betake  yourselves,  therefore,  to  these  waters,  for 
they  alone  can  cjuench  the  violence  of  the  future  fire.  .  .  . 
For  whether  you  be  righteous  or  unrighteous,  baptism  is 
necessary  for  you  in  every  respect :  for  the  righteous,  that 
perfection  may  be  accomplished  in  him,  and  he  may  be 
born  again  to  God ;  for  the  unrighteous,  that  pardon  may 
be  vouchsafed  him  for  the  sins  he  has  committed  in  igno- 
rance." 

Infant  baptism  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the  twofold 
conviction  that  infants  are  so  affected  with  the  guilt  of  the 
race  as  to  be  subject  to  damnation  in  case  of  death  with- 
out baptism,  and  that  baptism  possesses  magical  efficacy  to 
secure  salvation.      At  first  it  would  naturally  be  confined 


OTHER   ANCIENT  PERVERSIONS.  II 

to  infants  in  imminent  danger  of  death  ;  but  those  who 
had  the  keenest  reahzation  of  the  horrors  of  hell  and  the 
virtue  of  baptism  were  not  content  to  run  the  risk  of  the 
sudden  death  of  their  offspring,  and  so  the  practice  grew 
apace.  It  was  somewhat  impeded  in  its  progress,  how- 
ever, by  the  rise  and  growth  of  another  error,  namely, 
that  post-baptismal  sins  are  irremissible.  It  was  on  this 
ground,  and  on  this  alone,  that  Tertullian  pleaded  so  ear- 
nestly for  the  postponement  of  baptism  until  such  a  de- 
gree of  maturity  and  stability  should  have  been  reached  as 
would  warrant  the  expectation  that  the  candidate  would 
be  able  to  guard  himself  from  the  commission  of  mortal 
sins.  On  this  ground  some  went  to  the  opposite  extreme 
of  postponing  baptism  until  near  the  end  of  life.  Thus 
one  could  be  assured  of  entering  heaven  with  a  clean 
score.  The  rigid  view  of  Tertullian  as  regards  the  unpar- 
donableness  of  post-baptismal  sins  gradually  gave  place  to 
a  more  benignant  view,  and  from  the  middle  of  the  third 
century  the  church  made  such  provision  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  lapsed  that  infant  baptism  came  to  be  regarded 
by  most  as  the  safer  thing. 

The  Lord's  Supper  suffered  a  similar  perversion,  and, 
largely  through  Gnostic  influence,  ceased  to  be  regarded 
as  a  memorial  feast  in  which  believers  held  communion 
with  one  another  and  with  their  risen  Lord,  and  assumed 
the  character  of  a  mystic  rite  celebrated  with  elaborate 
ceremonial. 

The  growth  of  sacerdotalism  has  already  been  referred 
to.  The  process  by  which  the  simple  congregational 
church  government  of  the  apostolic  time  developed  into 
the  hierarchical  government  of  the  third  and  following 
centuries,  when  bishops  claimed  to  rule  by  divine  right 
and  to  be  irresponsible,  cannot  here  be  detailed. 

No  less  destructive  of  the  spirit  of  primitive  Christianity 


12  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

was  the  early  intrusion  of  the  doctrine  of  tlie  meritorious- 
ness  of  external  works.  Jews  and  pagans  alike  attached 
merit  to  almsgiving,  fasting,  and  the  utterance  of  fixed 
forms  of  prayer.  By  the  middle  of  the  third  century 
leading  churchmen  like  Cyprian  did  not  hesitate  to  urge 
almsgiving  as  a  means  of  securing  the  remission  of  sins 
and  of  purchasing  an  everlasting  inheritance. 

Asceticism,  also,  was  imported  into  early  Christianity 
from  paganism.  The  disposition  to  regard  the  body  as 
intrinsically  evil,  and  all  natural  impulses  as  worthy  only 
of  being  trampled  upon,  is  a  well-known  feature  of  pagan 
religions.  Fanatical  seeking  for  martyrdom,  excessive 
fasting,  and  exaltation  of  virginity  were  the  earliest  forms 
of  Christian  asceticism.  It  was  chiefly  through  Gnosticism 
and  Manichseism  that  ascetical  ideas  found  entrance  into 
the  church.  By  the  fourth  century  they  had  become 
dominant. 

These  facts  are  mentioned  here  to  show  that  the  perver- 
sion of  the  ordinances  in  the  early  church  was  no  isolated 
phenomenon,  and  that  Baptists  are  not  presumptuous  in 
rejecting  ecclesiastical  practices  which  can  be  traced  back 
e\en  as  far  as  the  second  or  third  century. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  did  the  church  as  a  whole  suc- 
cumb to  these  corrupting  influences?  Were  there  none 
that  remained  loyal  to  primitive  Christianity  among  the 
tempted  multitudes?  Some  Baptist  writers  have  sought 
to  find  in  the  Montanists,  Novatians,  Donatists,  Jo\"inianists, 
Vigilantians,  Paulicians,  Bogomiles,  etc.,  who  successively 
revolted  from  the  dominant  type  of  Christianity,  and  in 
the  ancient  British  churches  that  long  refused  obedience 
to  the  pope,  adherents  to  apostolic  doctrine  and  practice 
and  links  in  the  chain  of  Baptist  apostolic  succession.  It 
may  suffice  here  to  say  that  while  some  of  these  parties 
were  more  and  .some  less  evangelical  than  the  church  they 


MED  IE  I  'A  L   A  XT  J  FED  OB  A  P  TIS  TS.  I  3 

antagonized,  no  one  of  them  can  be  proved  to  have  held 
to  Baptist  views  as  to  the  nature  and  subjects  of  baptism. 

Was  there,  then,  a  failure  of  the  assurance  of  Christ  that 
the  gates  of  Hades  should  not  prevail  against  his  church? 
Far  be  it!  We  are  not  able  to  prove,  it  is  true,  that  from 
the  close  of  the  apostolic  age  to  the  twelfth  century  a 
single  congregation  existed  that  was  in  every  particular 
true  to  the  apostolic  norm ;  but  that  there  were  hosts  of 
true  believers  even  during  the  darkest  and  most  corrupt 
periods  of  Christian  history  does  not  admit  of  a  doubt. 
That  a  church  may  make  grave  departures  in  doctrine  and 
practice  from  the  apostolic  standard  without  ceasing  to  be 
a  church  of  Christ  must  be  admitted,  or  else  it  must  be 
maintained  that  during  long  periods  no  church  is  known 
to  have  existed.  In  this  admission  there  is  no  implication 
that  an  indiviciual  or  a  church  can  knowingly  live  in  dis- 
obedience to  Christ's  precepts  without  grievous  sin,  or  can 
ignorantly  disobey  without  serious  spiritual  loss.  On  the 
contrary,  every  departure,  conscious  or  unconscious,  from 
apostolic  precept  or  example  not  only  involves  loss  as 
regards  the  particular  defection,  but  brings  in  its  train 
other  evils,  which  in  turn  bring  others,  until  doctrine  and 
practice  become  thoroughly  corrupt. 

Not  until  we  reach  the  twelfth  century  do  we  encounter 
types  of  Christian  life  that  we  can  with  any  confidence 
recognize  as  Baptist.  Among  the  dissenting  parties  which 
flourished  at  that  time  in  the  south  of  France  we  meet 
with  Peter  de  Bruys  and  Henry  of  Lausanne,  both  of 
whom  took  a  firm  stand  in  favor  of  the  restoration  of  prim- 
itive Christianity  and  for  many  years  propagated  their 
views  with  great  success  throughout  extensive  regions. 
Referring  to  the  work  of  Peter  de  Bruys  in  a  certain  re- 
gion, Peter  the  Venerable,  a  contemporary,  wrote :  "  In 
your  parts  the  people  are   rebaptized,  the  churches  pro- 


1 4  INTKOD  UCriON. 

faned,  the  altars  overthrown,  crosses  burned ;  on  the  very 
day  of  our  Lord's  passion  flesh  is  pubhcly  eaten ;  priests 
are  scourged;  monks  are  imprisoned  and  compelled  by 
terrors  and  tortures  to  marr}-."  The  scourging  and  tor- 
turing are  non-Baptist  features,  but  the  writer  bears  wit- 
ness at  least  to  the  utter  helplessness  of  priests  and  monks 
in  the  presence  of  Peter's  fiery  zeal.  Elsewhere  he  sums 
up  the  errors  of  the  evangelists  under  five  heads.  "  The 
first  article  of  the  heretics  denies  that  children  who  have 
not  reached  the  age  of  intelligence  can  be  saved  by  bap- 
tism, nor  {sic)  that  another  person's  faith  can  profit  those 
who  cannot  use  their  own,  since  our  Lord  says,  '  Who- 
soever shall  have  believed  and  shall  have  been  baptized 
shall  be  saved.'  "  He  charges  them,  furthermore,  with 
denying  the  real  presence  in  the  eucharist.  The  rest  of  the 
charges  are  in  entire  accord  with  the  Baptist  position. 
Peter  labored  from  1104  to  11 28,  and  Llenry  from  11 16 
to  1 148.  The  popularity  of  the  latter  was  wonderful,  and 
multitudes  were  turned  by  him  from  the  dominant  church. 
We  have  accounts  of  similar  antipedobaptist  movements 
in  Breton,  the  Netherlands,  and  the  Rhine  region  during 
the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century.  Evervin,  in  a  letter 
to  Bernard,  refers  to  "  certain  other  heretics  in  our  land 
[the  vicinity  of  Cologne],  absolutely  discordant  from 
these  [the  Cathari],  through  whose  mutual  discord  and 
contention  both  have  been  detected  by  us.  These  lat- 
ter deny  that  the  body  of  Christ  is  made  at  the  altar. 
.  .  .  Concerning  the  baptism  of  little  children  they  have 
no  faith,  because  of  that  passage  in  the  gospel,  '  Whoso- 
ever shall  have  believed  and  shall  have  been  baptized  shall 
be  saved.'  "  It  is  probable  that  Arnold  of  Brescia,  the 
great  Italian  reformer  of  the  same  century,  rejected  infant 
baptism.  If  so,  his  position  was  almost  identical  with  that 
of  Peter  de  Bruys  and   Henry  of  Lausanne,  with  whom 


MEDIEVAL    EVAXGELICAL   LIFE.  I  5 

he  may  have  come  in  contact.  The  statement  of  Otto  of 
Freising,  one  of  the  best  informed  of  his  contemporaries, 
"  He  [Arnold]  is  said  to  have  been  astray  with  reference 
to  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  and  the  baptism  of  infants," 
is  amply  confirmed  as  to  the  first  charge  and  uncontra- 
dicted as  to  the  second. 

The  early  Waldenses  (1178  onward)  were  believers  in 
transubstantiation,  baptismal  regeneration,  and  infant  bap- 
tism. Under  the  influence  of  more  evangelical  parties, 
most  or  all  of  them  came  to  reject  transubstantiation  and 
consubstantiation  alike,  and  some  of  them,  probably  a 
minority,  became  antipedobaptists. 

Peter  Chelcicky,  the  spiritual  father  of  the  Bohemian 
Brethren,  and  one  of  the  ablest  evangelical  thinkers  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  closely  approached  in  his  doctrinal 
system  the  position  reached  by  the  antipedobaptists  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  Like  the  later  Waldenses,  he  rejected 
the  doctrines  of  the  real  presence  and  baptismal  regener- 
ation, and  sought  to  make  the  New  Testament  the  stand- 
ard of  his  faith  and  practice.  Any  departure  from  the 
apostolic  model,  by  way  of  addition  or  diminution,  he 
considered  apostasy.  God's  law  is  perfectly  sufficient  in 
every  particular.  Any  union  of  church  and  state  he  re- 
garded as  fraught  with  evil.  If  the  entire  population  of 
a  state  were  Christian,  there  would  be  no  need  of  civil 
government.  A  Christian  state  he  regarded  as  anomalous. 
In  the  so-called  Christian  state  there  is  no  place  for  the 
true  Christian  except  in  the  lowest  ranks.  All  dominion, 
all  class  distinctions,  are  radically  opposed  to  Christ's  re- 
quirement of  brotherly  equality.  No  true  Christian  can 
be  a  king  or  a  civil  officer.  Christians  should  avoid  trade, 
as  involving  deceit  in  seeking  advantages.  He  insisted 
on  the  freedom  of  the  will,  yet  recognized  the  necessity 
of  divine  grace  in  regeneration.     Oaths  and  capital  punish- 


1 6  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

ment  he  rejected  with  the  utmost  decision.  As  regards 
baptism,  after  quoting  the  great  commission,  he  proceeds : 
"  Open  and  clear  is  the  word  of  the  Son  of  God:  first  he 
speaks  of  faith,  then  of  baptism ;  .  .  .  and  since  we  find 
this  doctrine  in  the  gospel  we  should  now  also  hold  fast 
to  it.  But  the  priests  err  greatly  in  baptizing  the  great 
mass,  and  no  one  is  found,  whether  old  or  young,  who 
knows  God  and  believes  his  Scripture.  .  .  .  Baptism  be- 
longs to  those  who  know  God  and  believe  his  Scripture." 
It  is  rather  disappointing  to  find  him  adding,  "  If  such 
have  children,  baptism  should  be  bestowed  upon  their 
children  in  their  conscience." 

The  Bohemian  Brethren  (Unitas  Fratrum)  practiced  re- 
baptism  in  receiving  members  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  Hussite  Churches  until  1537,  when  they  reluctantly 
abandoned  it  to  escape  the  penalties  to  which  Anabaptists 
were  by  law  amenable.  Like  the  Waldenses,  the  Bohe- 
mian Brethren  were  divided  in  respect  to  infant  baptism. 
In  an  apology  and  two  confessions  addressed  (1503-04) 
to  King  Wladislaus,  they  admit  that  some  among  them 
have  rejected  infant  baptism. 

There  is  no  decisive  evidence  that  any  party  in  England 
rejected  infant  baptism  before  the  Reformation  time,  al- 
though a  vigorous  evangelical  movement  was  carried  for- 
ward there  before  and  after  the  time  of  Wiclif. 

The  medieval  exangelical  moxements  are  of  interest  to 
the  student  of  Baptist  history  not  simply  on  account  of 
the  antipedobaptist  features  that  appear  in  connection 
with  the  most  important  of  them,  but  still  more  because 
of  the  type  of  life  and  teaching  which  was  to  reappear  in 
nearly  all  its  features  in  the  antipedobaptist  parties  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  stress  laid  on  the  imitation  of 
Christ  and  on  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  maintenance 
of   freedom   of  the   will,   insistence    on    holy    living   as   a 


THE   AXABAPTISrS.  ij 

necessary  expression  of  true  faith,  rejection  of  oaths,  war- 
fare, capital  punishment,  and  the  exercise  of  magistracy 
on  the  part  of  Christians,  are  common  to  medieval  evan- 
gelical parties  and  to  the  various  antipeclobaptist  parties 
of  the  Reformation  time. 

It  is  estimated  that  there  were  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  between  300  and  400  congregations  of 
Bohemian  Brethren  in  Moravia  and  Bohemia,  with  a  con- 
stituency of  about  200,000.  These  had  the  support  and 
protection  of  many  of  the  most  powerful  noblemen.  In 
the  Alpine  valleys  of  southeastern  France  and  northwestern 
Italy  the  Waldenses  (Vaudois)  continued  to  exist  in  large 
numbers.  It  is  estimated  that  they  had  at  this  period 
about  100  congregations,  with  a  constituency  of  about 
100,000.  Scattered  throughout  the  rest  of  Europe  there 
were  Waldensian  congregations,  the  number  of  whose  con- 
stituents may  have  reached  100,000  more. 

During  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  Lutheran 
revolt  from  the  papacy,  these  evangelical  Christians  were 
active  in  the  circulation  of  vernacular  Bibles  and  other 
evangelical  literature. 


IV.    THE    ANABAPTISTS    OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 

The  Anabaptist  movement  of  the  sixteenth  century  had 
its  roots  in  the  evangelical  parties  of  the  middle  ages,  to 
which  it  owed  its  modes  of  thought,  its  type  of  Christian 
life,  and  its  methods  of  work.  To  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  time  it  owed  most  of  the  features  that 
differentiate  it  from  the  earlier  movements.  The  term 
"  Anabaptist "  was  applied  indiscriminately  to  all  who, 
dissenting  from  the  dominant  forms  of  Protestantism  and 
from  Roman  Catholicism,  insisted  on  setting  up  separate 


1 8  IN  TROD  L  XTION. 

churches  for  the  embodiment  and  propagation  of  their 
views.  To  the  dominant  parties,  Thomas  Miinzer,  the 
mystical  fanatic  and  sociaHstic  agitator,  who  never  sub- 
mitted to  nor  administered  rebaptism,  who  persisted  in 
baptizing  infants,  and  who  sought  to  set  up  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  by  carnal  warfare,  the  scholarly  and  soundly 
Scriptural  Hubmaier,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  mystic, 
Denck,  and  the  chiliastic  fanatics  of  Minister,  were  all  alike 
Anabaptists,  and  even  the  most  Christ-like  of  these  were 
treated  as  criminals  of  the  deepest  dye.  There  was  some 
excuse  for  this  confusion  in  the  fact  that  most  of  those 
to  whom  the  epithet  was  applied  denied  the  Scriptural 
authorization  of  infant  baptism,  and  made  baptism  on  a 
profession  of  faith  a  condition  of  entering  into  their  fellow- 
ship. 

The  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  a  time  of 
unrest  and  expectancy.  A  spirit  of  revolution  was  abroad. 
Enough  of  evangelical  light  and  enough  of  the  spirit  of 
freedom  had  been  diffused  among  the  oppressed  masses 
to  insure  among  them  an  enthusiastic  reception  for  any 
movement  that  should  give  fair  promise  of  relief  from 
priestcraft  and  of  social  amelioration.  When  Luther  de- 
nounced indulgences  and  afterward  went  on  assailing,  one 
after  another,  the  c<)rruptions  and  errors  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  those  who  had  come  under  the  influence 
of  the  evangelical  movements  of  the  earlier  time  felt  that 
now  at  last  the  day  of  deliverance  had  come,  and  rallied 
to  his  support.  Luther's  bold  proclamation  of  the  suffi- 
ciency and  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  of  the  universal 
priesthood  of  believers,  and  of  the  right  of  each  individual 
Christian  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  for  himself,  and  his 
repudiation  of  "  whatever  falls  short  of,  is  apart  from,  or 
goes  beyond  Christ,"  must  have  produced  a  strong  im- 
pression on  those  who  had  been  long  listening  for  such  a 


THE   ZWICKAU  PROPHETS.  1 9 

mighty  leader  to  voice  their  sentiments.  It  was  natural 
that  when  Luther  began  to  draw  back,  in  deference  to 
the  views  of  the  civil  rulers  and  from  fear  of  disastrous 
revolution,  the  radical  reformers  that  had  taken  him  at  his 
word  should  refuse  to  conform  to  his  moderated  scheme, 
and  should  set  themselves  in  opposition  to  what  they  con- 
sidered a  temporizing  policy.  It  was  natural,  also,  that 
Luther,  when  he  felt  that  the  evangelical  cause  was  jeop- 
ardized by  the  radicals,  should  have  counseled  their  vio- 
lent suppression. 

The  first  note  of  revolt  in  Germany  was  sounded  at 
Zwickau,  where  Thomas  Miinzer  had  become  pastor  of  a 
leading  church.  Under  the  influence  of  Nicholas  Storch, 
a  master  weaver,  who  had  apparently  come  in  contact 
with  a  chiliastic  Bohemian  party,  and  \\\\o  possessed  a 
wonderful  knowledge  of  the  letter  of  Scripture  and  knew 
how  to  interpret  the  prophecies  with  reference  to  his  own 
time,  Miinzer  was  led  to  proclaim  the  setting  up  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  with  the  overthrow  of  the  existing 
order.  Miinzer,  Storch,  and  a  number  of  their  followers 
regarded  themselyes  as  prophets,  and  claimed  to  be  com- 
missioned to  lead  in  the  establishment  of  a  reign  of  right- 
eousness and  equality.  After  some  iconoclastic  procedures 
at  Zwickau,  a  number  of  the  prophets  visited  Wittenberg 
with  the  hope  of  winning  to  their  support  the  evangelical 
leaders.  Carlstadt,  the  rector  of  the  university,  and  Cel- 
larius,  one  of  the  leading  scholars,  recognized  their  claims 
and  accepted  their  views.  Melanchthon  was  powerfully 
moved,  but  turned  to  Luther,  then  in  retirement  at  the 
Wartburg,  for  counsel.  Luther  left  his  retirement  and  by 
a  mighty  effort  succeeded  in  checking  the  movement.  The 
labors  of  Storch  and  Miinzer  during  the  next  few  years, 
and  the  violent  fanaticism  of  Miinzer  and  his  followers, 
aided  in  arousing  the  social  democracy  of  Germany  to  re- 


20  INTRODUCTIOX. 

volt,  and  in  convincing  many  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
would  be  set  up  by  a  mighty  display  of  divine  power  in 
connection  with  the  swords  of  the  faithful.  Storch  rejected 
infant  baptism  and  established  several  congregations  of 
baptized  believers.  Miinzer  retained  infant  baptism,  after 
declaring  it  to  be  unscriptural,  and  devoted  his  energies 
almost  exclusively  to  arousing  the  masses  to  revolt.  The 
part  which  he  played  in  the  Peasants'  War,  the  massacre 
of  his  deluded  followers,  and  his  own  subsequent  execu- 
tion are  sufficiently  familiar.  Storch  is  to  be  regarded  as 
the  father  of  the  chiliastic  Anabaptist  movement,  \\'hose 
later  history  was  so  fraught  with  disaster. 

This  blending  of  antipedobaptist  views  with  chiliastic 
reveries  and  with  socialistic  and  revolutionary  aims  and 
procedures  was  most  unfortunate,  and  caused  antipedo- 
baptists  of  all  types  to  be  regarded  as  the  enemies  of  civil 
and  religious  order. 

A  radical  movement  of  a  widely  different  type  we  meet 
in  Switzerland  from  1523  onward.  Zwingli  was  an  ad- 
vanced humanist,  and  had  no  sympathy  with  the  ascrip- 
tion of  magical  efficacy  to  external  ritQS.  His  efforts  at 
reform  were  directed  largely  against  the  superstitious 
practices  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  so  general  was  anti- 
papal  feeling  in  republican  Switzerland  that  the  reforma- 
tion of  idolatrous  abuses  met  with  little  opposition.  Cool- 
headed,  clear-headed,  a  good  scholar,  an  able  theologian, 
a  skillful  debater,  an  adroit  politician,  he  aimed  at  political 
and  social  reform  almost  as  much  as  at  religious.  In  a 
disputation  with  representatives  of  the  Bishop  of  Con- 
stance in  1523,  he  set  forth  his  views  in  sixty-seven  arti- 
cles, and  overwhelmed  his  opponents.  In  the  elaboration 
of  the  eighteenth  article  he  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  early  church  catechetical  instruction  preceded 
baptism.      He  persistently  denied  that  infants  are  saved 


THE   SWISS  ANABAPTISTS.  2  1 

by  baptism  or  lost  through  lack  of  it.  Zwingli's  type  of 
reform  rapidly  spread  over  a  large  part  of  Switzerland 
and  into  the  adjoining  German  and  Austrian  provinces. 
From  1 52 1  onward,  Balthasar  Hubmaier,  one  of  the  ablest 
theologians  and  most  eloquent  preachers  of  the  time,  was 
chief  pastor  at  Waldshut  in  the  Austrian  Breisgau,  having 
left  a  highly  influential  position  in  Regensburg  on  account 
of  his  adoption  of  evangeHcal  views.  In  1523  he  con- 
versed with  Zwingli  on  the  baptism  of  infants,  a«d  Zwingli 
agreed  with  him  in  holding  that  it  was  without  Scriptural 
authorization  and  ought  in  time  to  be  abolished.  Hub- 
maier kept  his  antipedobaptist  views  in  abeyance  for  some 
time,  and  by  his  clear  and  strong  evangelical  teaching 
gained  such  an  ascendency  as  enabled  him  to  carry  with 
him  the  influential  elements  of  the  population  in  the  adop- 
tion of  believers'  baptism. 

In  the  meantime  a  radical  party  had  appeared  in  the 
canton  of  Ziirich.  Reformatory  measures  were  pressed 
forward  vigorously  by  Zwingli,  but  he  was  hampered  by 
the  civil  authorities  and  dared  not  proceed  as  fast  as  the 
radicals  demanded.  These  violated  fasts  and  threw  down 
images  before  they  were  authoritatively  abolished.  They 
refused  to  pay  tithes  and  agitated  for  agrarian  reform.  A 
body  of  earnest  Christian  scholars  had  gathered  around 
Zwingli,  who  sought  to  impress  upon  him  the  importance 
of  completing  the  reformation  of  the  church  and  the  in- 
admissibility of  allowing  the  measure  of  reform  to  be  dic- 
tated by  the  ungodly  magistracy.  That  the  unregenerate 
should  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Supper  along  with  the 
regenerate  seemed  to  them  contrary  to  apostolic  precept 
and  example.  Zwingli  admitted  the  desirableness  of  most 
of  the  reforms  that  they  urged,  but  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  ignore  the  magistracy.  Unable  longer  to  have  fellow- 
ship with  a  partially  reformed  church,  and  convinced  that 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

Zwingli  was  sinfully  temporizing,  Grebel,  Manz,  Blaurock, 
and  others  withdrew,  and  organized  a  church  of  beUevers 
on  the  basis  of  beHevers'  baptism  (December,  1524).  When 
ZwingH  saw  the  connection  of  antipedobaptism  with  the 
setting  up  of  separate  churches  and  the  dissolution  of  the 
ecclesiastical  establishment,  he  at  once  became  a  zealous 
advocate  of  infant  baptism.  The  antipedobaptist  move- 
ment spread  with  great  rapidity  in  the  canton  of  Ziirich, 
and  thence  to  Schaffhausen,  St.  Gall,  Berne,  Basle,  and 
the  Graubiinden.  Severe  persecution  for  a  time  seemed 
rather  to  further  the  movement  than  to  hinder  its  prog- 
ress. In  St.  Gall  and  its  vicinity  thousands  were  baptized 
in  a  few  weeks  (April  and  May,  1525). 

Hubmaier,  with  Roiibli's  help,  introduced  believers' 
baptism  at  Waldshut  (about  Easter,  1525),  and  the  town 
authorities,  supported  by  the  people,  incurred  the  wrath 
of  the  Austrian  government  by  refusing  to  deliver  him 
up.  When  obliged  to  leave  Waldshut  (December,  1525) 
he  took  refuge  in  Zurich,  where  with  Zwingli 's  approval 
he  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  if  not  technically  tortured 
(as  seems  probable),  was  subjected  to  the  most  distressing 
hardships.  Exterminating  persecution  dispersed  the  Svv'iss 
antipedobaptists  throughout  Europe.  Hubmaier  took  ref- 
uge in  Moravia  (July,  1526),  where  he  won  some  noble- 
men to  the  support  of  his  cause,  and  in  about  a  year  and 
a  half  (1526-27)  built  up  a  strong  church  and  produced 
and  published  an  extensive  denominational  literature. 

In  Silesia,  partly  through  the  influence  of  Nicholas 
Storch,  partly  through  the  activity  of  Caspar  Schwenck- 
feldt,  an  influential  nobleman  who  had  adopted  antipedo- 
baptist views,  but  was  prevented  by  his  mysticism  from 
taking  a  strong  position  in  favor  of  believers'  baptism,  and 
still  more  through  the  influence  of  the  Swiss  antipedo- 
baptist movement,  a  large  part  of  the  population  came  to 


ANABAPTISTS  OF  SILESIA,  AUSTRIA  AND  AUGSBURG.    23 

reject  infant  baptism.  Persecution  drove  Schwenckfeldt 
from  the  country  in  1528,  and  Gabriel  Ascherham  (Schar- 
ding),  one  of  the  ablest  and  soundest  of  the  antipedobap- 
tist  leaders,  led  thousands  of  his  followers  to  Moravia, 
which  had  become  the  land  of  promise  for  the  persecuted 
Anabaptist  hosts. 

In  Styria  and  the  Tyrol  antipedobaptist  views  met  with 
the  most  eager  acceptance,  and,  notwithstanding  the  per- 
sistent efforts  of  the  Austrian  authorities  to  exterminate 
them.  Anabaptists  long  carried  on  a  vigorous  propaganda 
in  these  provinces.  One  of  the  most  famous  of  the  Tyrol- 
ese  preachers  was  Jacob  Huther,  who  became  a  leader  of  the 
chief  Moravian  party,  but  afterward  suffered  martyrdom 
in  his  native  land.  These  Austrian  provinces  had  been 
nurseries  of  evangelical  life  during  the  later  middle  ages, 
and  the  very  localities  where  Waldenses  had  flourished 
became  centers  of  Anabaptist  activity. 

Augsburg  was  one  of  the  chief  commercial  centers  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  was  a  refuge  for  persecuted 
Anabapti.sts  from  1525  to  1530.  In  no  locality  was  there 
a  greater  aggregation  or  a  greater  variety  of  Anabaptist 
life.  Chiliasts  of  the  Storch  and  Miinzer  type  and  Swiss 
Anabaptists  were  both  alike  early  on  the  ground ;  but  the 
first  to  attempt  an  organization  of  the  heterogeneous 
Anabaptist  mass  was  Hans  Denck,  who  may  be  regarded 
as,  next  to  Hubmaier,  the  most  important  of  the  early 
Anabaptist  leaders.  Closely  associated  with  him  in  evan- 
gelistic work  and  in  oriental  studies  and  Bible  translation 
was  Ludwig  Hatzer.  Under  Hubmaier's  influence,  or- 
ganization was  effected  in  the  summer  of  1526.  Denck 
left  Augsburg  after  a  few  months,  and  the  leadership  fell 
upon  Hans  Hut,  a  disciple  of  Miinzer  and  a  chiliast  of  the 
most  pronounced  type,  who,  however,  had  been  baptized 
by  Denck.      The  activity  and  influence  of  Hut  are  aston- 


24  INTRODUC'J-JOX. 

ishing.  Making  Augsburg  his  center,  he  labored  in  Mo- 
ra\ia,  upper  Austria,  and  throughout  southern  Germany. 
So  irresistible  was  his  influence  over  the  oppressed  masses 
that  a  few  hours'  stay  in  a  place  often  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  a  C(jmmunity  pledged  to  his  principles. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  he  encouraged  the  people 
to  expect  in  the  near  future  a  mighty  manifestation  of 
divine  power  for  their  deliverance,  and  gave  secret  instruc- 
tions to  his  followers  to  be  prepared  to  smite  the  ungodly 
when  the  appointed  time  should  come. 

Denck's  type  of  teaching  was  perpetuated  in  Augsburg 
by  Eitelhans  Langenmantel,  a  member  of  one  of  the  chief 
patrician  families,  who  published  largely  in  defense  of  anti- 
pedobaptist  principles  and  against  the  corrupt  practices 
of  the  time. 

Denck  returned  to  Augsburg  about  September,  1527, 
and  once  more  placed  his  strong  hand  on  the  helm.  There 
are  said  to  have  been  at  least  eleven  hundred  Anabaptists 
in  the  city  about  this  time.  Shortly  after  Denck's  return 
a  great  gathering  of  Anabaptist  leaders  is  supposed  to 
have  occurred  in  Augsburg.  Persecution  of  a  violent  type 
soon  followed.  Denck  departed,  and  died  soon  afterward 
at  the  house  of  his  friend  CEcolampadius.  Hut  died  in 
prison,  and  a  number  of  executions  followed.  In  Swabia, 
Bavaria,  and  Franconia,  exterminating  measures  were  en- 
acted in  February,  1528.  The  sanguinary  imperial  edict 
of  Speier  followed  in  April,  1529. 

The  Strassburg  authorities  were  even  more  tolerant 
than  those  of  Augsburg,  and  the  city  has  been  called  an 
Eldorado  of  the  persecuted.  The  evangelical  ministers 
were  exceptionally  liberal.  Bucer  for  some  time  declined 
to  persecute  those  who  quietly  rejected  infant  baptism  ; 
Zell  could  never  be  induced  to  repudiate  or  refuse  hospi- 
tality to  any  man  who   recognized  Christ  as  his  Lord  and 


ANABAPTISTS   OF  STRASSBURG  AND  HESSE.  25 

Saviour;  while  Capito  could  scarcely  be  restrained  from 
becoming  an  avowed  antipedobaptist.  Every  type  of 
antipedobaptist  life  had  its  representatives  in  this  center. 
During  1526  vast  numbers  of  persecuted  Anabaptists  from 
all  parts  of  Alsace,  southern  Germany,  and  Switzerland 
streamed  into  the  city.  Here  also  Denck  and  Hiitzer 
resided  for  some  months,  and  produced  a  marked  impres- 
sion. Among  other  noted  leaders  may  be  mentioned 
Jacob  Gross,  a  disciple  of  Hubmaier;  Michael  Sattler,  one 
of  the  ablest  and  most  amiable  of  the  antipedobaptists  of 
the  Swiss  school ;  Wilhelm  Roiibli,  one  of  the  earliest  and 
most  zealous  evangelists  of  the  time ;  Jacob  Kautz,  a 
brilliant  preacher  who  went  beyond  Denck  in  the  mystical 
character  of  his  teaching;  Pilgram  Marbeck,  a  Tyrolese 
engineer,  whose  social  position  and  whose  devotion  to 
antipedobaptist  principles  were  of  the  highest  value  to  the 
cause ;  and  Melchior  Hofmann,  a  Swabian  furrier,  whose 
influence  was  to  prove  disastrous. 

After  the  issuing  of  the  edict  of  Speier  the  Strassburg 
authorities  felt  obliged  to  take  measures  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  deeply  rooted  antipedobaptist  movement. 
Many  were  banished,  some  were  tortured,  but  the  Strass- 
burg authorities  were  strongly  averse  to  shedding  inno- 
cent blood. 

The  Landgra\'e  Philip  of  Hesse  was,  with  all  his  moral 
delinquencies,  by  far  the  most  tolerant  of  all  the  princes 
of  Germany.  In  spite  of  the  entreaties  and  remonstrances 
of  such  neighboring  princes  as  John  George  of  Saxony, 
and  of  such  Protestant  leaders  as  Luther,  Melanchthon, 
and  Bucer,  he  steadfastly  refused  to  deal  severely  with  the 
people  everywhere  spoken  against.  It  is  remarkable  that 
of  the  two  thousand  or  more  Anabaptists  executed  up  to 
1530,  not  one  had  suffered  in  Hesse.  In  1529,  in  response 
to  a  remonstrance  from  the  elector  of  Saxony,  he  wrote : 


26  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

"  Wc  are  still  unable  at  the  present  time  to  find  it  in 
our  conscience  to  have  any  one  executed  with  the  sword 
on  account  of  his  faith."  Even  after  the  Miinster  catas- 
trophe, when  other  princes  were  slaughtering  Anabaptists 
indiscriminately,  he  insisted  on  making  a  distinction  be- 
tween fanatics  and  evangelical  advocates  of  believers'  bap- 
tism. "  To  punish  capitally  .  .  .  those  who  have  done 
nothing  more  than  err  in  the  faith  cannot  indeed  be  justi- 
fied on  gospel  grounds,"  he  wrote  at  this  time. 

The  most  noted  and  influential  leader  of  the  Hessian 
Anabaptists  was  Melchior  Rink,  a  man  of  splendid  scholar- 
ship and  noble  character,  but  unfortunately  involved  in 
the  millenarian  errors  of  Storch  and  Miinzer.  He  was 
many  times  arrested,  and  his  life  was  demanded  by  the 
Saxon  princes  and  theologians,  but  Philip  had  strength 
enough  to  protect  him  from  his  enemies. 

At  NikoLsburg  in  Moravia,  Hubmaier  labored  for  a 
year  and  a  half  with  astonishing  success.  The  Counts 
Leonard  and  John  of  Lichten.stein  accepted  his  views  and 
received  baptism  at  his  hands.  The  principal  evangelical 
preachers  in  the  territory  of  the  Lichtensteins,  including 
one  who  had  been  a  Roman  Catholic  bishop,  were  also 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  Hubmaier's  teaching,  and  became 
his  coadjutors.  A  printing-press  was  established  and 
Hubmaier's  works  were  widely  circulated.  Hut  soon  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  and  won  some  to  his  millenarianism 
and  his  rejection  of  magistracy  and  warfare.  Communism 
was  championed  by  Jacob  Wiedemann,  and  after  Hub- 
maier's martyrdom  (1528)  became  the  dominant  type  of 
Anabaptist  teaching  in  Moravia.  Notwithstanding  fre- 
quent bitter  persecution,  the  Moravian  Anabaptists  by 
their  skill  and  industry  made  themselves  indispensable  to 
the  Moravian  nobles,  and  their  strong  communistic  organ- 
ization  enabled  them  to  husband  their  resources  for  ag- 


MORA  I  'I A  N  A  A  'A  BA  P  TIS  TS.  2 "] 

gressive  work  in  the  neighboring  countries,  and  even  in 
times  of  severe  persecution  to  hold  together.  The  dis- 
advantages of  communism  need  not  here  be  dwelt  upon. 
Under  Jacob  Huther  (1529  onward)  the  communistic  ele- 
ment became  dominant,  and  the  party  soon  came  to  be 
known  as  Hutherites.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  (161 8)  they  numbered  about  70,000,  and  were 
highly  prosperous.  War  and  the  Jesuits  nearly  wrought 
their  extermination.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  a  few  families  removed  from  Transylvania  to 
Russia.  In  1874  the  entire  community  emigrated  to 
America  and  settled  in  what  is  now  South  Dakota.  They 
have  five  congregations,  with  a  membership  of  352.  (See 
vol.  i.  of  the  present  series,  p.  213.) 

By  1530  nearly  all  of  the  Anabaptist  leaders  of  the 
earlier  time  had  been  destroyed.  Persecution  had  become 
so  fierce  and  so  general  that  apart  from  Moravia  there 
was  scarcely  a  place  of  refuge.  The  chiliastic  teachings 
of  Hut  and  Rink  had  found  eager  acceptance  among  the 
pious  people,  who  were  coming  to  despair  of  the  triumph 
of  the  truth  through  ordinary  means,  and  who  were  driven 
to  the  belief  that  God  would  miraculously  interpose  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  godly  and  for  the  destruction  of  the 
ungodly.  This  view  received  extensive  currency  through 
the  remarkable  activity  of  Melchior  Hofmann.  After  an 
eventful  career  as  a  Lutheran  (1523-29)  in  Livonia, 
Sweden,  Denmark,  etc.,  where  he  created  great  commo- 
tion by  his  fiery  denunciations  of  the  corruptions  of  the 
time,  and  his  proclamation  of  the  approaching  divine 
judgment,  he  adopted  the  Carlstadt-Zwinglian  view  of 
the  Supper,  and  in  company  with  Carlstadt  journeyed 
through  the  Netherlands  and  reached  Strassburg  in  June, 
1529.  In  East  Friesland  a  controversy  was  raging  be- 
tween  Lutherans  and  Zwinglians,   and  he   and   Carlstadt 


28  JXTRODUCriOX. 

L;a\  e    mucli    encouragement   and    help    to    the    Zwinghan 
party,  wliicli  soon  became  triumphant.      He  was  equipped 
with  a  remarkable  knowledge  of  the  letter  of  Scripture, 
and  with  a  mastery  of  the  allegorical  method  of  interpre- 
tation.     He  had  long  been  a  pronounced  chiliast,  and  he 
had  already  reached   the  conclusion  that   Christ's  human 
nature  was  not  derived  from    Mary,  but  was    essentially 
divine.     Contact  with  the  Anabaptists  of  Strassburg  led  to 
his  conversion  to  antipedobaptist  view^s.      He  soon  found 
those  who  sympathized  with  him  in  his  chiliastic  and  other 
errors,  although  it  may  be  supposed  that  those  antipedo- 
baptists  who  had  been  trained  in  the  school  of  Denck,  and 
those  who  were  at  this  time   under  the  influence  of  the 
soundly   evangelical    Pilgram    Marbeck,  would   give  little 
heed  to  such    vagaries.       The  prophetic    spirit   appeared 
among  his  followers,  and  in  1530  he  published  a  modern 
prophecy  with  an  interpretation  of  Revelation  xii.,  which 
the  authorities  regarded  as  treasonable.      During  the  next 
three  years,  by  his  writings  and  his  evangelistic  efforts,  he 
gained  multitudes  of  converts  throughout  the  Netherlands, 
Westphalia,  and  the  lower  Rhenish  provinces.      In   1531 
the  Hofmannites  suffered  severe  persecution  in  the  Nether- 
lands, and  Jan  Trijpmaker,  Hofmann's  most  influential  dis- 
ciple, was  put  to  death.      Hofmann  now  promulgated  an 
order  that  baptism  be  suspended  for  two  years,  with  the 
intimation  that  at  the  end  of  this  period  there  would  be  a 
wonderful  manifestation  of  divine  power  on  behalf  of  the 
lovers  of  the  truth.      The  effect  of  this  fixing  of  the  date 
of  Christ's  advent  was  wonderful.     His  disciples  were  filled 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  those  who  are  assured  that  they 
■  ha\e  a  great  mission  to  perform,  and    that   the    time  is 
strictly  limited.      From  this  time  onward    the  growth  of 
the   party  in   the    Netherlands  was  rapid.      Lutheranism 
and  Zwinelianism  almost   vanished.      Throughout  West- 


CIIILIASTIC  ANABAmSTS.  29 

phalia,  Hesse,  Cleves-Jiilich,  and  other  neighboring  prov- 
inces this  type  of  teaching  was  rapidly  propagated. 

In  1533  one  of  Hofmann's  disciples  had  prophesied 
that  he  should  return  to  Strassburg,  suffer  six  months' 
imprisonment,  and  then  lead  the  lovers  of  the  truth  to 
universal  victory.  He  returned  to  Strassburg  and  was 
thrown  into  prison,  where  he  died  ten  years  later.  There 
is  something  truly  pathetic  in  the  history  of  his  prophecies 
and  his  disappointments.  Again  and  again  he  fixed  the 
date  of  the  inauguration  of  the  glorious  kingdom,  and 
sought  to  explain  the  preceding  failures.  Hofmann  was 
undoubtedly  an  exceedingly  able  and  a  profoundly  pious 
man,  and  to  his  honor  it  must  be  said  that  he  did  not 
counsel  resort  to  violence.  But  he  awakened  a  chiliastic 
enthusiasm  that  was  sure  to  lead  to  the  horrors  of  Miin- 
ster. 

Before  the  imprisonment  of  Hofmann  a  still  more  influ- 
ential leader  had  appeared  in  the  person  of  one  of  his 
Dutch  disciples,  Jan  Matthys  by  name.  Hofmann  seems 
to  have  announced  (153  i)  to  the  faithful  that  he  himself 
was  Elias ;  Enoch  would  appear  later,  and  be  revealed  to 
the  lovers  of  the  truth  ;  in  two  years  the  saints  would 
gather  at  Strassburg,  and  to  the  number  of  144,000  would 
go  forth  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  to  set  up  his  kingdom. 
As  the  end  of  1533  drew  near  expectation  was  at  its 
height,  and  the  wildest  excitement  pre\'ailed  throughout 
the  Hofmannite  connection.  Hofmann  was  in  prison,  and 
the  people  grew  impatient.  Matthys  announced  himself 
as  the  promised  prophet,  and  ordered  the  resumption  of 
baptism.  A  propaganda  was  now  carried  forward  with 
the  intensest  enthusiasm.  Multitudes  were  baptized 
throughout  the  regions  of  Hofmann's  activity.  In  Mat- 
thys we  see  the  spirit  of  Miinzer  revived,  and  that  in  an 
intensified  form.      He  seems  to  have  been  consumed  with 


30 


INTJWDl'C'J'IOX. 


hatred  of  the  upper  classes,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  op- 
pressors and  persecutors  of  the  poor  people  of  God.  To 
him  God  was  in  relation  to  the  ungodly  a  God  of  venge- 
ance. The  dealing  of  Jehovah  with  the  Canaanites  through 
his  chosen  people  was  the  basis  of  his  idea  of  the  way  in 
which  the  new  dispensation  was  to  be  ushered  in.  Chris- 
tians were  to  take  up  arms,  and  to  blot  out  the  ungodly 
from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Meanwhile  an  antipedobaptist  movement  of  great  power 
had  been  developed  at  Miinster  in  Westphalia.  This  city 
had  been  a  Roman  Catholic  stronghold.  Protestantism  of 
every  type  had  been  excluded  with  the  utmost  rigor.  In 
1529  Bernard  Rothmann,  a  well-educated  young  clergy- 
man, began  to  preach  evangelical  sermons  at  St.  Mauritz, 
in  the  suburbs.  His  influence  extended  into  the  city, 
especially  among  the  working-classes.  His  followers  were 
able  by  15 30  to  secure  for  him  the  use  of  one  of  the  city 
churches.  Under  his  leadership  the  social  democracy  of 
the  city  joined  hands  with  the  Lutherans,  and  the  reform 
movement  became  so  vigorous  that  in  December,  1532, 
the  unpopular  bishop  was  driv^en  from  the  city  and  many 
of  his  influential  supporters  imprisoned.  The  success  of 
the  evangelical  movement  aroused  the  wildest  enthusiasm, 
not  only  in  Miinster,  but  also  throughout  the  lower  Rhen- 
ish provinces.  Monasteries  were  closed,  and  priests  were 
driven  from  the  city.  A  number  of  able  evangelical  min- 
isters from  Cleves-Jiilich  and  other  provinces  soon  joined 
Rothmann  in  his  reforming  work.  Among  the  most  noted 
of  these  were  Roll,  Vinne,  Klopriss,  and  Staprade.  These 
all,  with  Rothmann,  soon  became  avowed  antipedobaptists. 
Rothmann  at  this  time  possessed  a  commanding  influence. 
He  had  married  the  widow  of  a  syndic,  and  had  the  full 
support  of  the  council  and  the  guilds.  Controversy  with 
the  Lutherans  followed.     The  council  attempted  to  compel 


MUNSTER  KINGDOM.  3 1 

the  ministers  to  resume  infant  baptism.  On  their  refusal 
an  order  was  issued  for  the  closing  of  their  churches  and 
the  deposition  of  Rothmann.  A  great  popular  demon- 
stration secured  for  Rothmann  the  privilege  of  preaching 
in  another  church  on  condition  that  he  should  refrain  from 
referring  to  the  matters  in  dispute.  He  consented  to  re- 
spect this  requirement  until  he  should  receive  some  further 
intimation  of  the  divine  will  with  respect  to  the  matter. 

The  news  of  the  overthrow  of  Roman  Catholicism  in 
Miinster  and  of  the  rapid  growth  of  antipedobaptist  senti- 
ment awakened  the  profoundest  interest  among  the  Hof- 
mannite  congregations.  Early  in  January,  1534,  two  emis- 
saries from  Jan  Matthys  reached  Miinster  and  announced 
to  the  antipedobaptist  leaders  that  Enoch  had  appeared 
in  the  person  of  Matthys,  that  the  millennial  kingdom 
was  at  hand,  and  that  the  baptized  and  redeemed  should 
henceforth,  under  the  dominion  of  Christ,  lead  a  blessed 
life,  with  community  of  goods,  without  law,  without  magis- 
tracy, and  without  marriage.  Rothmann,  Roll,  Vinne, 
and  Stralen  were  baptized,  and  these  baptized  fourteen 
hundred  others  during  the  next  eight  days.  These  first 
emissaries  from  Matthys  seem  not  to  have  fully  expounded 
the  program  of  their  leader.  On  January  13th  appeared 
two  men  specially  commissioned  by  Matthys  to  remain  in 
Miinster  and  to  take  the  leadership  of  the  movement. 
These  were  John  of  Leyden  and  Gertom  Kloster.  The 
former  was  a  gifted  and  enthusiastic  young  man  of  twenty- 
three.  Rothmann  and  the  older  antipedobaptist  ministers 
were  henceforth  the  led  rather  than  the  leaders.  The  city 
authorities  were  powerless  to  stay  this  wild  enthusiasm. 
The  religious  institutions  were  seized  and  Roman  Catholics 
and  Lutherans  alike  were  compelled  to  leave  .the  city. 
Persecution  was  renewed  in  the  Netherlands  in  February. 
Learning  of  the  success  of  his  followers  in  Miinster,  Mat- 


32 


INT  ROD  UC  TIOiV. 


thys   announced    that  it   had  been   revealed  to  him  that 
Minister  and  not  Strassburg  was  the  New  Jerusalem.     He 
dispatched  messengers  in  all  directions  to  order  the  faith- 
ful to  meet  at  a  particular  time  at  some  designated  place. 
The  command  came  to  them  as  the  voice  of  God.     Multi- 
tudes left  their  homes,  not  knowing  whither  they  went. 
Many  were  seized  and  executed  on  the  way  to  Miinster. 
Thousands  reached  the  city  of  promise.      Matthys  himself 
was  soon  in  Miinster.      The  city  was  organized  as  a  the- 
ocracy.     Matthys  is  said  to  have  proposed  the  slaughter 
of  all  the  ungodly  that  remained  in  the  city,  but  was  op- 
posed by  Knipperdollinck,  who  had  long  been  a  leader  of 
the  social  democracy,  and  whose  influence  in  the  new  king- 
dom was  great.      The  city  was  well  fortified  and  was  de- 
fended with  the  utmost  determination.      Messengers  were 
sent  out  in  every  direction  to  proclaim  the  setting  up  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  in  Miinster.      In  April,  Matthys  was 
slain  in   attacking  the  besiegers.      John   of  Leyden  soon 
declared  that  he  had   received  a  divine  command  to  be 
king,  and  he  dare  not  disobey.     Polygamy  was  introduced 
in  obedience  to  another  supposed  divine  intimation.      A 
reign  of  terror  ensued,,  in  which  the  wildest  license  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  most  absolute  despotism  on  the  other 
prevailed.      For  more  than  a  year  the  w^retched  fanatics 
were  able  to  resist  the  bishop  and  his  allies.      At  last  the 
siege  was  broken  and  rebellion  was  suppressed  in  the  most 
summary  manner. 

The  Miinster  kingdom  furnished  an  excuse  for  the  in- 
tensifying of  persecution  throughout  Europe.  Persecu- 
tion extended  to  Moravia,  and  for  a  time  threatened  utter- 
ly to  destroy  this  flourishing  branch  of  the  antipedobap- 
tist  brotherhood. 

Among  Dutch  antipedobaptists  that  refused  to  follow 


THE   MEXXOXITES.  33 

the  lead  of  Matthys  were  Dirk  and  Obbe  Phillips  and 
Leonard  Bouwens,  of  East  Friesland.  Under  the  leader- 
ship of  Menno  Simons,  supported  by  these  brethren,  the 
quiet  antipedobaptists  of  the  Netherlands,  the  lower  Rhen- 
ish regions,  and  the  regions  bordering  on  the  East  Sea, 
were,  after  the  Munster  uproar,  gathered  into  a  firmly 
cemented  union  (1537  onward).  Menno  was  a  well-edu- 
cated Catholic  priest,  who  had  become  interested  in  Prot- 
estantism as  early  as  1523  and  had  been  deeply  impressed 
by  the  martyrdom  of  Sicke  Frierichs,  an  Anabaptist,  in 
153 1.  As  early  as  1533  he  seems  to  have  entered  into 
relations  with  the  Anabaptists  without  abandoning  his 
position  as  Roman  Catholic  priest.  He  used  all  his  influ- 
ence to  dissuade  the  Anabaptists  from  the  rash  measures 
that  culminated  in  the  Miinster  kingdom.  In  1536  he 
withdrew  from  the  Catholic  Church,  and  in  the  following 
year  was  led  by  the  entreaties  of  the  quiet  Anabaptists, 
and  his  conviction  of  their  sore  need  of  help,  to  assume  the 
leadership.  The  Mennonites,  as  the  party  afterward  came 
to  be  called,  repudiated  with  the  utmost  decision  all  fanat- 
ical and  revolutionary  measures,  and  denied  any  connec- 
tion with  the  abominations  of  Munster.  They  adopted  in 
almost  every  detail  the  principles  and  practices  of  the 
medieval  Waldenses  and  Bohemian  Brethren,  along  with 
a  far  more  decided  maintenance  of  believers'  baptism. 
They  enjoyed  for  some  time  a  considerable  measure  of 
toleration  in  the  Netherlands  and  neighboring  regions,  and 
soon  grew  into  a  strong  party.  Dissension  arose  chiefly 
in  regard  to  discipline,  and  toward  the  close  of  the  six- 
teenth and  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century 
Socinianism  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  party  ;  but 
not\\ithstanding  much  persecution  and  frequent  schisms, 
Mennonism  has  maintained  itself  \yith  slight  changes,  till 


34 


INTROD  UCriON. 


the  present  time,  and  still  flourishes  in  the  Old  and  in  the 
New  World. 

As  early  as  1530  persecuted  antipedobaptists  from  the 
Continent  seem  to  have  taken  refuge  in  England  and  anti- 
pedobaptist  literature  to  have  been  there  in  circulation.  The 
terrible  persecutions  that  preceded  and  followed  the  Miin- 
ster  kingdom  drove  multitudes  of  Dutch  Anabaptists  to 
England,  where  rapidly  developing  manufacturing  enter- 
prise offered  to  skilled  Dutch  artisans  a  welcome  means  of 
maintenance,  while  their  strange  tongue  shielded  them  to 
some  extent  from  persecution.  A  considerable  number 
were  detected  from  time  to  time,  and  executions  and  ban- 
ishments were  not  infrequent;  but  it  is  certain  that  their 
numbers  continued  to  be  considerable  and  that  they  ex- 
erted an  important  influence  on  English  evangelical  life. 
Most  of  these  earliest  antipedobaptist  refugees  seem  to 
have  been  of  the  Hofmannite  type,  as  those  who  were 
arraigned  before  the  authorities  agreed  in  denying  that 
Christ  derived  his  humanity  from  Mary.  Later  refugees  to 
England  were  chiefly  Mennonites. 

In  Italy  an  important  antitrinitarian  antipedobaptist 
movement  flourished  from  1546  (or  earlier)  onward. 
Among  the  leaders  were  Camillo  Renato,  Francesco  Ne- 
gri, Pietro  da  Casah  Maggiore,  Tiziano,  Iseppo  of  Asola, 
Celio  Secundo  Curio,  Hieronimo  Buzano,  and  Pietro  Ma- 
nelfi.  These  were  all  educated  men  of  high  social  posi- 
tion. Tiziano's  views  may  be  summed  up  as  follows:  (i) 
Insistence  on  believers'  baptism;  (2)  rejection  of  magis- 
tracy as  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity;  (3) 
maintenance  of  the  symbolical  and  memorial  nature  of  the 
sacraments;  (4)  exaltation  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  only 
criterion  of  the  faith;  (5)  denunciation  of  the  Roman 
Church  as  devilish  and  absolutely  antichristian. 

In  1550  about  forty  Anabaptist  churches  in  northern 
Italy  and  the  contiguous  parts  of  Switzerland  and  Austria 


ITALIAN  AND  POLISH  ANABAPTISTS.  35 

were  in  fellowship  with  each  other  and  enjoyed  together 
the  services  of  a  general  superintendent.  At  this  date 
these  churches  were  much  agitated  over  the  question 
"  whether  Christ  was  God  or  man."  Sixty  delegates  from 
about  forty  churches  met  in  Venice  for  the  settlement  of 
this  question.  The  Old  and  New  Testaments  were  ac- 
cepted as  fundamental  authority.  Thrice  during  the  meet- 
ing the  Lord's  Supper  was  solemnly  celebrated.  After 
forty  days  of  earnest  discussion  an  almost  unanimous  decis- 
ion was  reached  against  the  deity  of  Christ,  against  the 
reality  of  good  and  evil  angels,  against  the  immortality  of 
the  godless  and  a  place  of  future  punishment,  in  favor  of 
soul-sleeping,  and  against  the  propitiatory  nature  of  Christ's 
sufferings. 

Manelfi  proved  a  traitor  and  delivered  up  his  brethren 
to  the  Inquisition.  Some  escaped  to  Moravia,  and  having 
learned  there  the  way  of  the  Lord  more  perfectly  returned 
and  attempted  to  win  their  brethren  to  right  doctrinal 
views. 

The  religious  history  of  Poland  is  closely  connected  with 
that  of  Italy.  The  Italian  thinkers  who  disseminated  anti- 
trinitarian  views  in  Poland  had  doubtless  been  influenced 
by  such  antitrinitarian  antipedobaptists  as  Tiziano,  Curio, 
Negri,  etc.  So  multifarious  was  the  religious  life  of  Po- 
land during  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  that 
toleration  was  a  necessity,  Lutherans,  Reformed,  Bohe- 
mian Brethren,  Anabaptists,  and  antitrinitarians  existed 
side  by  side,  each  party  having  its  supporters  among  the 
nobility.  It  may  suffice  here  to  say  that  antipedobaptist 
antitrinitarianism  became,  after  a  prolonged  struggle,  the 
dominant  type  of  religion  and  was  embodied  in  the  Ra- 
covian  Catechism,  first  published  in  1605,  but  prepared 
some  years  earlier.  This  document  contains  an  admirable 
definition  of  baptism,  entirely  in  accord  with  the  Baptist 
view.     Infant  baptism  is  repudiated,   "  since  we  have  in 


36  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

Scripture  no  command  for,  nor  any  example  of,"  it.  In 
answer  to  the  question,  "  What,  then,  is  to  be  thought  of 
those  who  baptize  infants?"  the  reply  is,  "You  cannot 
correctly  say  that  they  baptize  infants.  For  they  do  not 
baptirse  them — since  this  cannot  be  done  without  the  im- 
mersion and  ablution  of  the  whole  body  in  water,  whereas 
they  only  lightly  sprinkle  their  heads — this  rite  being  not 
only  erroneously  apphed  to  infants,  but  also,  through  this 
mistake,  evidently  changed." 

It  may  here  be  remarked  that  Michael  Servetus,  the 
antitrinitarian  martyr,  was  a  most  pronounced  opponent  of 
infant  baptism. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  antipedobaptist  movements  in 
the  sixteenth  century  may  suffice  to  give  an  idea  of  the 
character  and  the  diversity  of  the  religious  life  opprobri- 
ously  designated  "Anabaptist."  The  following  remarks 
may  prove  helpful : 

1.  The  parties  designated  "Anabaptist"  agreed  with 
each  other  and  with  the  medieval  evangelical  parties  in 
aiming  to  restore  primitive  Christianity,  in  laying  stress 
upon  the  practical  teachings  of  Christ  himself  (as  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount),  in  rejecting  the  Augustinian  (Lu- 
theran and  Calvinistic)  doctrinal  system,  including  denial 
of  freewill,  justification  by  faith  alone,  etc.,  in  rejecting 
oaths,  warfare,  capital  punishment,  and  the  exercise  of 
magistracy  by  Christians.  Hubmaier  differed  from  most 
of  his  brethren  as  regards  magistracy,  warfare,  etc. 

2.  Liberty  of  conscience  was  earnestly  insisted  upon  by 
Hubmaier  in  a  special  treatise,  and  the  violation  of  con- 
science was  regarded  by  Anabaptists  in  general  as  abom- 
inable. 

3.  All  agreed  in  rejecting  infant  baptism  and  in  insisting 
upon  believers'  baptism,  on  the  grounds  that  still  prevail 
with  Baptists. 


REMARKS. 


17 


4.  Immersion  was  practiced  at  St.  Gall,  Augsburg, 
Strassburg,  and  by  the  antitrinitarian  Anabaptists  of  Po- 
land. But  the  common  practice  among  the  Swiss,  Aus- 
trian, Moravian,  and  Dutch  parties  was  affusion.  The  im- 
portance of  immersion  as  the  act  of  baptism  seems  to  have 
been  appreciated  by  few. 

5.  A  number  of  speculative  (mystical)  thinkers  com- 
bined with  the  views  common  to  the  \'arious  parties  anti- 
trinitarian and  uni\'ersalistic  views,  and  some  (as  the  Ital- 
ian Anabaptists)  became  involved  in  the  grossest  doctrinal 
errors. 

6.  Even  more  baleful,  if  possible,  was  the  influence  of 
chiliasm,  beginning  with  Storch  and  Miinzer,  transmitted 
through  Hut  and  Rink,  gi\en  wide  currency  by  Hofmann, 
and  fanned  into  fury  by  Matthys.  Chiliasm  has  no  logical 
connection  with  antipedobaptist  principles  and  is  likely  to 
arise  at  any  time  among  earnest  men  dri\'en  to  despair  by 
persecution.  The  great  mass  of  those  who  took  part  in 
the  Miinster  kingdom  had  adopted  antipedobaptist  views 
simply  because  they  were  presented  to  them  in  connection 
with  a  social  scheme  that  promised  relief  from  their  bur- 
dens, the  destruction  of  their  oppressors,  and  a  glorious 
earthly  life.  Under  circumstances  such  as  existed  in 
1533—35  chiliasm  inevitably  leads  to  fanaticism.  It  may 
well  be  questioned  whether  it  is  safe  under  any  circum- 
stances to  tamper  with  a  mode  of  religious  thought  in 
which  so  dire  possibilities  inhere.  The  extent  to  which 
the  Baptist  cause  has  been  impeded  b}'  the  Miinster  king- 
dom is  incalculable.  The  Baptist  name  is  odious  through- 
out continental  Europe  to-day  because  of  it.  In  England 
and  in  America  the  opponents  of  Baptists  long  urged  their 
extermination  on  the  grounci  that  they  might  be  expected 
to  reenact  the  horrors  of  Miinster. 


38  INTRODUCTION. 

V.    THE    ENGLISH    GENERAL   BAPTISTS.^ 

The  traditions  according  to  which  Baptist  churches,  as 
distinct  from  congregations  of  Dutch  Mennonites,  existed 
in  England  prior  to  1609  seem  to  be  unsupported  by  any 
evidence  that  the  historian  can  accept.  It  is  possible  that 
some  Welsh  congregations  of  the  ancient  British  type,  or 
some  Lollard  congregations,  practiced  believers'  baptism 
in  the  sixteenth  century  or  earlier,  but  decisive  evidence 
is  wanting.  Robert  Browne,  probably  under  Mennonite 
influence,  adopted  congregational  views  and  insisted  on 
liberty  of  conscience  (1580  onward).  He  is  said  to  have 
been  intimately  associated  with  the  Dutch  population  of 
Norwich,  among  whom  w^ere  many  Mennonites,  and  it  is 
probable  that  his  church  was  composed  in  part  of  those 
who  had  been  under  Mennonite  teaching.  Persecution 
soon  drove  Browne  and  part  of  his  congregation  to  Mid- 
delburg,  Zeeland,  where  again  he  had  ample  opportunity 
to  mature  his  views  under  Mennonite  influence.  The 
congregation  was  broken  up  by  internal  dissension,  and 
Browne,  probably  losing  his  mental  poise,  returned  to  the 
Church  of  England  and  died  in  disgrace ;  but  he  had  given 
currency  among  English  evangelicals  to  principles  that 
were  to  bear  fruit,  notwithstanding  the  defection  of  their 
annunciator.  Other  small  separatist  congregations  were 
formed  in  London  as  early  as  1587  or  1588.  Severe  per- 
secution and  the  execution  of  Barrowe,  Greenwood,  and 
Penry,  caused  the  exodus  of  many  of  the  separatists  to 
Holland  (1593  onward),  and  a  large  congregation  of  Eng- 
lish exiles  was  gathered  in  Amsterdam  under  Francis 
Johnson  and   Henry  Ainsworth  (1595    onward).      It  may 

1  See,  on  the  General  Baptists,  Evans,  Goadby,  Taylor,  Crosby,  Ivimey, 
Barclay,  Dexter  ("  John  Smyth  "),  Hanbury,  De  Hoop  Schiiffer,  Weingarten, 

and  the  Ilanscrd  Knollys  Society's  pul)lications,  as  in  the  P)il)liography. 


ENGLISH  GENERAL   BAPTLSTS.  39 

be  remarked  that  Barrowe,  Johnson,  and  Ainsworth,  in 
different  degrees,  receded  from  the  radical  position  of 
Browne  as  regards  church  government  and  Hberty  of  con- 
science, adopting  instead  a  semipresbyterian  pohty  and 
recognizing  the  right  of  magistrates  to  suppress  erroneous 
teaching  and  practice. 

About  1602  John  Smyth,  a  Cambridge  graduate  and 
one  of  the  most  scholarly  men  of  his  time,  gathered  a  sep- 
aratist church  at  Gainsborough.  About  1606  pastor  and 
congregation  emigrated  to  Amsterdam  and  established 
themselves  side  by  side  with  the  older  English  congrega- 
tion as  the  "  Second  English  Church  at  Amsterdam."  A 
modern  writer  ^  unfriendly  to  Smyth's  principles  thus  char- 
acterizes him  :  "  Clearly  he  w^as  an  impulsive  man,  with 
something  magnetic  in  his  popular  sympathies  and  gifts 
strongly  attaching  his  friends  to  himself;  able  to  turn  his 
hand  to  more  than  one  thing;  unselfish  and  charitable; 
punctilious  and  courageous ;  never  ashamed  to  own  any 
wrong  in  himself  which  he  discovered ;  a  good  preacher, 
and  a  scholar  of  considerable  acquirements — having,  in 
short,  many  of  the  elements  of  a  great  and  good  man. 
On  the  other  hand,  his  mind  was  restless,  and  perhaps  his 
conscience  morbidly  .sensitive  to  small  matters,"  etc. 

Before  removing  to  Amsterdam  Smyth  had  already  em- 
braced views  of  church  polity  nearer  to  those  of  Browne 
and  of  modern  Congregationalists  and  Baptists  than  were 
those  of  Johnson  or  Ainsworth.  In  1608  he  came  into 
controversy  with  the  brethren  of  the  older  congregation 
with  reference  to  the  use  of  translations  of  the  Bible  in 
the  worship  of  God.  He  objected  to  these  on  the  ground 
tliat  they  were  apocryphal  and  not  the  pure  word  of  God. 
To  meet  his  view  every  conductor  of  divine  worship  must 

1  Dexter,  "  John  Smyth,"  p.  3.  INIuch  of  the  material  here  presented  with 
reference  to  Smyth  is  derived  from  this  schohirly  work. 


40 


INTRODUCTIOX. 


be  SO  skilled  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  as  to  be  able  to  extem- 
porize a  translation  for  the  benefit  of  the  unlearned.  He 
held  that  "  reading  out  of  a  book  ...  is  no  part  of  spirit- 
ual worship,  but  rather  the  invention  of  the  man  of  sin  "  ; 
that  "  in  time  of  prophesying  it  is  unlawful  to  have  the 
book  as  a  help  before  the  eye  "  ;  and  that  "  seeing  singing 
a  psalm  is  a  part  of  spiritual  worship,  therefore  it  is  un- 
lawful to  have  the  book  before  the  eye  in  time  of  singing 
a  psalm."  "  The  triformed  presbytery,  consisting  of  three 
kinds  of  elders,"  he  held  to  be  "  none  of  God's  ordinance, 
but  man's  device  "  ;  he  maintained  that  "  lay  elders  (so 
called)  are  antichristian  "  ;  and  insisted  that  "  in  contributing 
to  the  church  treasury  there  ought  to  be  both  a  separation 
from  them  that  are  without  and  a  sanctification  of  the 
whole  action  by  prayer  and  thanksgiving." 

In  most  of  these  points  Smyth  undoubtedly  made  a 
wrong  and  impracticable  application  of  principles ;  but 
underlying  all  v/as  the  profound  conviction  of  the  sole 
authority  of  Scripture  as  it  was  divinely  given,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  eliminating  from  the  worship  of  God  every- 
thing non-spiritual. 

Early  in  1609  (N.  S.)  Smyth  reached  the  conviction 
that  infant  baptism,  as  lacking  Scriptural  authorization,  was 
to  be  rejected  as  a  human  invention  that  makes  void  an 
ordinance  of  Christ ;  nay,  that  it  was  a  "  mark  of  the 
beast."  In  this  he  had  the  sympathy  and  support  of  his 
church.  Having  reached  the  con\-iction  that  the  church 
of  Johnson  and  Ainsworth  was  "  a  false  church,  falsely 
constituted  in  the  baptizing  of  infants  and  their  own  un- 
baptized  estate,"  Smyth  and  his  followers  "  dissolved  their 
church,  .  .  .  and  Mr.  Smyth,  being  pastor  thereof,  gave 
over  his  office,  as  did  also  the  deacons,  and  devised  to 
enter  into  a  new  communion  by  renouncing  their  former 
baptism." 


ENGLISH   GKXERAL   BAPTISTS.  4 1 

According  to  the  unanimous  testimony  of  contempora- 
ries and  his  own  apparent  admission,  Smyth  first  baptized 
himself,  then  Thomas  Helwys,  and  afterward  the  rest  of 
the  company.  It  is  ahnost  certain  that  the  rite  was  ad- 
ministered by  affusion  and  not  by  immersion.  His  oppo- 
nents make  no  reference  to  the  form  of  the  rite,  which 
they  would  almost  certainly  have  done  if  it  had  deviated 
from  current  practice  ;  and  the  entire  harmony  of  Smyth 
and  his  party  in  this  matter  with  the  Mennonites,  who  at 
this  time  practiced  affusion,  would  seem  decisive  in  favor 
of  the  supposition  that  they  conformed  to  the  common 
practice.  The  chief  reproach  that  the  opponents  of  Smyth 
and  his  brethren  sought  to  cast  upon  the  new  organization 
was  that  of  introducing  baptism  anew  and  of  se-baptism. 

The  following  is  Smyth's  answer  to  the  reproach  of  in- 
stability :  "  To  change  a  false  religion  is  commendable  and 
to  retain  a  false  religion  is  damnable.  For  a  man  of  a 
Turk  to  become  a  Jew,  of  a  Jew  to  become  a  Papist,  of  a 
Papist  to  become  a  Protestant,  are  all  commendable  changes 
though  they  all  of  them  befall  one  and  the  same  person 
in  one  year ;  nay,  if  it  were  in  one  month :  so  that  not  to 
change  religion  is  evil  simply ;  and  therefore,  that  we 
should  fall  from  the  profession  of  Puritanism  to  Brownism, 
and  from  Brovv^nism  to  true  Christian  baptism,  is  not  sim- 
ply evil  or  reprovable  in  itself,  except  it  be  proved  that 
we  have  fallen  from  true  religion  ;  if  we,  therefore,  being 
formerly  deceived  in  the  way  of  pedobaptistry,  now  do 
embrace  the  truth  in  the  true  Christian  apostolic  baptism, 
then  let  no  man  impute  this  as  a  fault  unto  us." 

Smyth  justified  his  act  in  instituting  baptism  anew  on 
grounds  entirely  satisfactory  to  modern  Baptists.  He 
claimed  that  he  and  his  followers  had  just  as  much  right 
to  "  baptize  themselves  "  as  his  opponents  had  "  to  set  up 
a  true   church."      "  For   if  a  true  church,"  he   proceeds, 


42 


INTRODUCTIOX. 


"  may  be  erected,  whicli  is  the  most  noble  ordinance  of 
tlie  New  Testament,  then  much  more  baptism.  ...  If 
they  must  recover  them,  men  must  begin  so  to  do,  and 
then  two  men  joining  together  may  make  a  church."  He 
maintained  that  "  any  man  raised  up  after  the  apostasy  of 
antichrist,  in  tlie  recovering  of  the  cliurch  by  baptism," 
may  "  administer  it  upon  himself  in  communion  with 
others."  The  necessity  for  this  procedure  lay  in  the  fact 
"  that  there  was  no  church  to  whom  we  could  join  with  a 
good  conscience  to  have  baptism  from  them." 

It  is  probable  that  Smyth's  rejection  of  infant  baptism 
was  due  in  some  measure  to  the  influence  of  the  Mennon- 
ites,  who  were  numerous  and  well  established  in  Amster- 
dam. A  few  months  after  the  introduction  of  believers' 
baptism  and  the  reorganization  of  the  church,  Smyth,  un- 
fortunately, became  convinced  that  he  had  made  a  serious 
mistake  in  introducing  baptism  anew.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Socinianizing  Mennonism  of  the  time  and 
place  he  adopted  the  Mennonite  (Hofmannite)  view  of 
Christ's  human  nature,  denied  original  sin  and  the  imputa- 
tion of  Adam's  sin,  insisted  that  men  are  justified  partly  by 
their  own  inherent  righteousness,  and  maintained  that  the 
church  and  ministry  must  come  by  succession,  that  an  elder 
of  one  church  is  an  elder  of  all  churches  in  the  world,  and 
that  magistrates  may  not  be  members  of  Christ's  church 
and  retain  their  magistracy.  For  these  errors  he  and  his 
followers  were  excluded  by  a  majority  of  the  church  he 
had  founded,  under  the  leadership  of  Thomas  Helwys  and 
John  Murton.  The  excluded  members  to  the  number  of 
thirty-two  made  application  to  the  Mennonite  Church  for 
admission,  humbly  confessing  and  repenting  of  their  error 
in  having  undertaken  "  to  baptize  themselves  contrary  to 
the  order  laid  down  by  Christ."  Helwys  and  his  party 
besought  the  Mennonite  brethren  to  take  wise  counsel — 


GENERAL  BAPTISTS.  43 

and  that  from  God's  word — "  how  you  deal  in  this  cause 
betwixt  us  and  those  that  are  justly  for  their  sins  cast  out 
from  us."  The  Mennonites  had  become  exceedingly  cau- 
tious from  past  experience,  and  postponed  action  until 
they  could  consult  with  brethren  outside  of  Amsterdam. 
On  various  pretexts  Smyth  and  his  party  were  long  re- 
fused admission.  A  Mennonite  brother  provided  them 
with  a  meeting-place,  and  they  continued  to  sustain 
friendly  but  not  organic  relations  with  the  Mennonite 
Church  until  1614,  two  years  after  Smyth's  death. 

Helwys  and  Murton  took  a  most  pronounced  stand 
against  Smyth's  insistence  on  apostolic  succession,  declar- 
ing that  succession  "  is  antichrist's  chief  hold,  and  that  it  is 
Jewish  and  ceremonial,  an  ordinance  of  the  Old  Testament, 
but  not  of  the  New."  "  How  dare  any  man  or  men,"  they 
add  in  their  letter  to  the  Mennonites  from  which  the  above 
is  taken,  "  challenge  unto  themselves  a  preeminence  here- 
in, as  though  the  Spirit  of  God  was  only  in  their  hearts, 
and  the  word  of  God  only  to  be  fetched  at  their  mouths, 
and  the  ordinance  of  God  only  to  be  had  from  their  hands, 
except  they  were  apostles?  .  .  .  This  is  contrary  to  the 
liberty  of  the  gospel,  which  is  free  for  all  men  at  all  times 
and  in  all  places."  They  likewise  took  strong  exception 
to  the  position  "that  elders  must  ordain  elders."  "If 
this  be  a  perpetual  rule,"  they  ask  the  Mennonites, 
"then  from  whom  is  your  eldership  come?  And  if  one 
church  might  once  ordain,  then  why  not  all  churches 
always?  " 

From  the  exclusion  of  Smyth  and  his  adherents  onward, 
Helwys  and  Murton  were  the  leaders  of  what  afterward 
came  to  be  known  as  the  General  Baptists.  Smyth  con- 
tinued till  his  death  to  antagonize  pedobaptism,  and  few 
have  ever  presented  the  Baptist  argument  in  a  more  con- 
vincing manner.      Smyth  claimed  that  the  English  sepa- 


44 


INTRODUCTION. 


ratists  had  placed  themselves  in  a  position  that  they  could 
not  consistently  hold.  They  had  renounced  the  Church 
of  England  as  apostate,  and  yet  had  been  content  with 
the  baptism  and  the  ordination  that  they  had  received 
in  connection  with  that  body  ;  they  claimed  to  be  striv- 
ing to  set  up  churches  of  the  regenerate,  but  continued  to 
baptize  infants,  and  without  claiming  that  they  were  re- 
generated thereby,  to  give  them  a  c^uasi- membership  in 
their  churches.  Some  of  the  opponents  of  Smyth,  appar- 
ently under  the  influence  of  his  arguments,  abandoned  the 
extreme  separatist  position  in  favor  of  what  is  known  as 
semi-separatism. 

Smyth  and  Helwys,  and  the  followers  of  the  latter, 
were  equally  clear  in  their  apprehension  and  statement  of 
the  Baptist  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience.  In  a  long- 
confession  of  faith  prepared  apparently  by  Smyth  about 
1611,  Art.  84  reads:  "That  the  magistrate  is  not  by  vir- 
tue of  his  office  to  meddle  with  religion  or  matters  of  con- 
science, to  force  or  compel  men  to  this  or  that  form  of 
religion  or  doctrine,  but  to  leave  Christian  religion  free  to 
every  man's  conscience,  and  to  handle  only  civil  trans- 
gressions (Rom.  xiii.),  injuries,  and  wrongs  of  man  against 
man,  in  murder,  adultery,  theft,  etc.,  for  Christ  only  is  the 
king  and  lawgiver  of  the  church  and  conscience  (James 
iv.  12)."  Helwys  wrote:  "  The  king  is  a  mortal  man  and 
not  God,  therefore  hath  no  power  over  the  immortal  souls 
of  his  subjects,  to  make  laws  and  ordinances  for  them,  and 
to  set  spiritual  lords  over  them.  If  the  king  have  author- 
ity to  make  spiritual  lords  and  laws,  then  he  is  an  immortal 
God  and  not  a  mortal  man." 

Helwys  became  convinced  that  fidelity  to  Christ  required 
that  he  should  proclaim  the  truth  to  his  owai  countrymen 
in  England,  and  that    to    remain    in    exile  was  cowardly. 


GEXERAL   BAPTISTS.  45 

Flight  from  persecution,  he  believed,  "  had  been  the  over- 
throw of  religion  in  this  island  ;  the  best,  ablest,  and  greater 
part  being  gone,  and  leaving  behind  them  some  few  who, 
by  the  others'  departure,  have  had  their  affliction  and 
contempt  increased,  hath  been  the  cause  of  many  falling 
back,  and  of  their  ad\ersaries'  rejoicing."  In  161 1  or  1612 
he  returned  to  England  with  most  or  all  of  his  followers, 
and  the  church  took  up  its  abode  in  London.  It  was  this 
company  of  believers  who  set  forth  from  1614  onward  those 
noble  pleas  for  liberty  of  conscience  that  expounded  the 
doctrine  with  a  fullness  and  persuasiveness  not  greatly 
surpassed  even  by  Roger  Williams,  and  to  which  Williams 
himself  seems  to  have  been  greatly  indebted. '^ 

Helwys  did  not  go  so  far  as  Smyth  in  the  direction  of 
Socinianism,  but  wrote  vigorously  in  defense  of  the  posi- 
tion "  that  God's  decree  is  not  the  cause  of  any  man's  sin 
or  condemnation,  and  that  all  men  are  redeemed  by  Christ ; 
as  also  that  no  infants  are  condemned."  He  took  a  de- 
cided position,  in  opposition  to  the  Mennonites,  in  favor 
of  the  true  humanity  of  Christ  and  in  favor  of  magistracy 
as  an  ordinance  of  God  which  "  deBarreth  not  any  from 
being  of  the  church  of  Christ."  Helwys's  tract  against 
flight  from  persecution  was  elaborately  answered  by  John 
Robinson,  to  whose  citations  we  are  indebted  for  our 
knowledge  of  this  document.  A  number  of  his  writings 
have  been  preserved,  but  are  very  rare. 

Fortunately  a  considerable  body  of  correspondence  be- 
tween the  English  Baptists  and  the  Mennonites  of  Holland, 
dating  from  1624  to  1626,  has  been  preserved  in  the 
archives  of  the  Mennonite  church  of  Amsterdam,  and  has 
been  made  available.      From  this  correspondence  the  fol- 

1  Tracts  on  lilierty  of  conscience,  in  the  Hanserd  Knoliys  Society's  col- 
lection. 


46  INTR  on  uc  riox. 

lowing  facts  may  be  gathered  or  inferred:  (i)  That  Hel- 
wys  had  passed  away  and  that  John  Murton  (or  Morton) 
was  now  their  chief  leader.  (2)  That  there  were  five  con- 
gregations in  close  fellowship,  viz.,  in  London,  Lincoln, 
Sarum,  Coventry,  and  Tiverton.  (3)  That  the  London 
church  had  excommunicated  one  Elias  Tookey,  with  a 
number  of  his  followers,  on  account  of  their  opinion  about 
bearing  with  and  tolerating  the  weak  or  those  of  little 
understanding  in  scriptural  matters,  who,  however,  were 
very  conscientious  in  everything  they  knew,  and  peaceful 
and  quiet  in  the  church.  From  Tookey's  own  letter  it 
would  seem  that  some  of  the  weak  ones  he  desired  to  tol- 
erate were  deniers  of  the  deity  of  Christ.  It  seems  prob- 
able that  Tookey's  own  views  on  this  subject  were  Socin- 
ian  rather  than  Trinitarian.  This  transaction  would  seem 
to  show  that  the  great  majority  of  the  English  Baptists  at 
this  time  laid  considerable  stress  on  right  doctrinal  views 
with  respect  to  the  person  of  Christ.  (4)  That  both  par- 
ties were  eager  to  secure  recognition  by  the  Mennonites  of 
Holland,  and  to  enter  into  union  with  them.  It  is  evident 
that  now  at  last,  after  Helwys's  death,  the  principles  of 
Smyth  had  come  to  prevail.  These  Baptists  were  willing  to 
yield  much  in  order  to  secure  the  consent  of  the  Mennonites 
to  a  union.  The  strength  and  dignity  of  the  Mennonite 
churches,  and  the  ability  of  their  ministers,  as  well  as  the 
generosity  of  these  earnest  godly  people  toward  the  im- 
poverished English  exiles,  had  profoundly  impressed  the 
latter,  and  they  felt  the  need  of  the  moral  support  that 
the  union  would  bring  to  their  persecuted  churches  in 
England.  (5)  They  differed  from  the  Mennonites  in  a 
number  of  matters,  but  these  differences,  so  far  as  they 
could  not  be  explained  away,  they  besought  their  Dutch 
friends  to  tolerate,  at  least  for  a  time.  The  chief  differ- 
ences seem  to  have  been  with  reference  to  oaths,  magis- 


GENERAL   BAPTISTS.  47 

tracy,  warfare,  and  the  weekly  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  The  Mennonites  celebrated  the  Supper  once  or 
twice  a  year  and  were  opposed  to  the  weekly  celebration  ; 
the  English  found  great  comfort  in  the  weekly  celebration 
and  pleaded  earnestly  to  be  tolerated  in  this  practice.  The 
English  did  not  see  their  way  to  reject  oaths,  magistracy, 
and  warfare  entirely,  and  asked  for  toleration  of  slight  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  in  these  matters  also.  The  Mennonites 
limited  the  administration  of  the  ordinances  to  such  as  had 
received  ordination  ;  the  English  sought  to  explain  their 
practice  as  substantially  in  accord  with  that  of  the  Men- 
nonites, but  they  would  extend  the  privilege  of  adminis- 
tering the  ordinances,  in  the  absence  of  an  ordained  min- 
ister, to  teachers  and  evangelists  recognized  as  such  by 
the  church.  The  efforts  at  union  would  seem  to  have 
been  unsuccessful.  The  Mennonites  were  too  inflexible 
in  their  positions  to  make  compromises. 

After  1626  the  General  Baptists  made  rapid  progress. 
By  1644  they  are  said  to  have  had  forty-seven  churches, 
and  by  1660  their  membership  had  reached  about  20,000. 
During  the  eighteenth  century  they  shared  in  the  general 
decline  of  religious  life,  and  their  Arminian  principles  made 
them  peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  deadening  influence  of 
Socinianism.  Most  of  their  churches  became  openly  Uni- 
tarian. As  a  result  of  the  great  revival  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  the  New  Connection  of 
General  Baptists  was  formed  in  1760  on  an  evangelical 
basis.  As  thus  reorganized  they  still  constitute  a  respect- 
able party  in  England,  and  are  now  closely  associated  with 
the  Particular  Baptists. 


48  INTRODUCTIO.Y. 


VI.    THE    ENGLISH    PARTICULAR    BAPTISTS.^ 

The  appellative  "  Particular"  as  applied  to  Baptists  has 
reference  to  their  doctrine  of  redemption  as  limited  to  the 
elect,  in  contradistinction  to  the  doctrine  of  universal  re- 
demption from  which  the  General  Baptists  derived  their 
designation.  The  rise  of  the  Particular  Baptists  was  as 
follows:  in  1616  Henry  Jacob,  an  Oxford  graduate,  who 
had  been  converted  to  Congregational  views  by  Francis 
Johnson,  and  who  had  been  for  some  years  pastor  of  an 
English  congregation  at  Middelburg,  Zeeland,  returned  to 
England  with  a  number  of  his  church-members,  and  settled 
at  Southwark,  London.  He  doubtless  soon  gathered  into 
his  congregation  the  scattered  members  of  earlier  churches, 
so  far  as  these  had  survived  and  remained  in  the  vicinity. 
Jacob's  church  was  to  be  the  mother  of  the  English  Inde- 
pendents and  of  the  Particular  Baptists  as  well.  Discour- 
aged by  the  threatening  aspect  of  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
Jacob  emigrated  to  Virginia  in  1624.  He  was  succeeded 
in  the  pastorate  by  John  Lathrop,  a  Cambridge  graduate. 
Pastor  and  people  sufifered  almost  constant  persecution 
under  Archbishop  Laud.  In  1632  forty  of  the  members, 
including  the  pastor,  were  thrown  into  prison.  Lathrop 
was  released  in  1634,  but  felt  obliged  to  emigrate  to  New 
England.  During  Lathrop's  pastorate  a  number  withdrew 
"  because  the  congregation  kept  not  to  their  first  principles 
of  separation,"  and  because  they  were  "  convinced  that 
baptism  was  not  to  be  administered  to  infants,  but  only  to 
such  as  professed  faith  in  Christ." 

According  to  an  account  attributed  to  William  Klffin,  a 
prominent  actor  in  a  later  secession  and  afterward  one  of 

1  See  Evans,  (lould,  Crosl)y,  Ivimey,    Masson,   and  tlic   Ilansenl   KnoIIys 
Society's  publications. 


rARTICL'LAR  BAPTISTS.  49 

the  most  influential  of  the  Particular  Baptist  leaders,  "  the 
church,  considering  that  they  were  now  grown  very  numer- 
ous, and  so  more  than  could,  in  these  times  of  persecution, 
conveniently  meet  together,  and  believing  also  that  those 
persons  acted  from  a  principle  of  conscience  and  not  ob- 
stinacy, agreed  to  allow  them  the  liberty  they  desired,  and 
that  they  should  be  constituted  a  distinct  church,  which 
they  performed  the  12th  of  September,  1633.  And  as 
they  believed  that  baptism  was  not  rightly  administered 
to  infants,  so  they  looked  upon  the  baptism  they  had 
received  in  that  age  as  invalid  ;  whereupon  most  or  all  of 
them  received  a  new  baptism.  Their  minister  was  Mr. 
John  Spilsbury." 

According  to  a  record  of  the  original  church,  in  1638 
seven  others,  whose  names  are  given,  "  desiring  to  depart 
and  not  to  be  censured,  our  interest  in  them  was  remitted, 
with  prayer  made  in  their  behalf,  .  .  .  they  having  first 
forsaken  us  and  joined  with  Mr.  Spilsbury." 

Spilsbury  felt  no  difficulty  about  the  new  introduction 
of  believers'  baptism,  maintaining  that  "  baptizedness  is 
not  essential  to  the  administrator,"  and  repudiating  the 
demand  for  apostolic  succession  as  leading  logically  to 
"  the  popedom  of  Rome." 

The  Baptist  leaven  would  continue  to  work  in  this  con- 
gregation until  the  whole  mass  should  have  been  leavened. 
According  to  the  "  Kiffin  Manuscript,"  "  1640,  3d  month. 
The  church  became  two  by  mutual  consent,  just  half  being 
with  Mr.  P.  Barebone,  and  the  other  half  with  Mr.  H. 
Jessey.  Mr.  Richard  Blunt  with  him,  being  convinced  of 
baptism,  that  also  it  ought  to  be  by  dipping  the  body  into 
the  water,  resembling  burial  and  rising  again  (Col.  ii.  12; 
Rom.  \i.  4),  had  sober  conference  about  it  in  the  church  ; 
and  then  with  some  of  the  forenamed,  who  also  were  so 
convinced,  and  after  prayer  and  conference  about  their  so 


so 


INTROD  UCTIOX. 


enjoying  it,  none  having  then  so  practiced  in  England  to 
professed  believers,  and  hearing  that  some  in  the  Nether- 
lands had  so  practiced,  they  agreed  and  sent  over  Mr. 
Richard  Blunt  (who  understood  Dutch)  with  letters  of  com- 
mendation, who  was  kindly  accepted  there,  and  returned 
with  letters  from  them,  John  Batte,  a  teacher  there  and 
from  that  church,  to  such  as  sent  him.  1641.  They  pro- 
ceed on  therein — viz.,  those  persons  that  were  persuaded 
baptism  should  be  by  dipping  the  body  had  met  in  tw^o 
companies  and  did  intend  so  to  meet  after  this ;  all  these 
agreed  to  proceed  alike  together,  and  then  manifesting 
(not  by  any  formal  words)  a  covenant  (which  word  w^as 
scrupled  by  some  of  them),  but  by  mutual  desires  and 
agreement  each  testified,  these  two  companies  did  set 
apart  one  to  baptize  the  rest,  so  it  was  solemnly  performed 
by  them.  Mr.  Blunt  baptized  Mr.  Blacklock,  that  was  a 
teacher  amongst  them,  and  Mr.  Blunt  being  baptized,  he 
and  Mr.  Blacklock  baptized  the  rest  of  their  friends  that 
were  so  minded,  and  many  being  added  to  them,  they  in- 
creased much." 

Among  those  who  seceded  with  Spilsbury  in  1633,  and 
who  were  immersed  in  1641,  was  Mark  Lukar,  who  was 
afterward  to  occupy  the  position  of  ruling  elder  and  to  be 
a  leading  worker  in  John  Clarke's  church  at  Newport,  R.  I., 
of  which  he  was  "one  of  the  first  founders"  (Felt),  and 
who  died  at  Newport  at  an  advanced  age  in  1676,  "  leav- 
ing the  character  of  a  very  w^orthy  walker."  This  point  of 
connection  between  the  earliest  Particular  Baptist  church 
of  England  and  one  of  the  two  earliest  American  Baptist 
churches  has  hitherto,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  been 
overlooked,  and  is  of  considerable  importance. 

William  Kithn  was  not  of  the  number  baptized  on  the 
occasion  referred  to,  but  seems  to  have  become  a  leader 
among  the  immersionists  during  1642  ;    for  in  October  of 


PARTICULAR   BAPTISTS.  5  I 

this  year  he  took  part  in  a  disputation  with  Dr.  Featley  at 
Southwark.  Kiffin,  besides  ministering  to  a  congregation 
and  taking  a  leading  part  in  denominational  matters,  was 
greatly  prospered  in  trade  and  became  possessed  of  ample 
means,  which  he  used  with  liberality  for  the  advancement 
of  the  Baptist  cause. 

In  1643  further  trouble  arose  in  Jessey's  church  on  the 
matter  of  infant  baptism.  Hanserd  Knollys  had  returned 
from  New  England  and  had  become  a  member  of  this 
church.  Kiffin's  account  of  the  matter  is  as  follows : 
"  Hanserd  Knollys,  our  brother,  not  being  satisfied  for 
baptizing  his  child,  after  it  had  been  endeavored  by  the 
elder  and  by  one  or  two  more,  himself  referred  to  the 
church  then,  that  they  might  satisfy  him  or  he  rectify 
them  if  amiss  herein :  which  was  well  accepted.  Hence 
meetings  were  appointed  for  conference  about  it."  Kiffin 
was  engaged  in  these  conferences,  which  lasted  from  Jan- 
uar)^  II  till  March  17,  1644  (N.  S.),  "the  issue  whereof 
was  the  conviction  of  sixteen  members  against  pedobap- 
tism."  These  withdrew,  Jessey  and  his  friends  agreeing: 
"  (i)  Not  to  excommunicate,  no,  nor  admonish,  which  is 
only  to  obstinate.  (2)  To  count  them  still  of  our  church 
and  pray  [for]  and  love  them.  (3)  Desire  conversing  to- 
gether so  far  as  their  principles  permit  them." 

There  is  something  delightful  about  the  good-will  with 
which  these  successive  divisions  occurred.  A  parallel  case 
would  be  difficult  to  find. 

Kiffin  seems  to  have  organized  a  new  church  some  time 
during  the  year  1644.  By  October  of  this  year  there 
were  seven  Particular  l^aptist  churches,  on  whose  behalf 
Kiffin,  Patience,  Spilsbury,  and  others  signed  a  "  Confes- 
sion of  Faith,  of  those  churches  which  are  commonly 
(though  falsely)  called  Anabaptists."  The  aim  of  the 
confession  was  purely  apologetical.       Baptists   had   been 


5- 


INTRODUCTIOX. 


accused  in  a  number  of  polemical  writings  of  holding  to 
the  most  monstrous  errors,  and  of  being  capable,  under 
favorable  circum.stances,  of  perpetrating  the  atrocities  of 
Miinster.  The  document  is  a  clear  setting  forth  of  Calvin- 
istic  doctrine,  along  with  a  statement  of  baptist  views  on 
the  ordinances.  To  guard  against  even  the  semblance  of 
sacerdotalism  it  is  stated  that  "  the  person  designed  by 
Christ  to  dispense  baptism  the  Scripture  holds  forth  to  be 
a  disciple  ;  it  being  nowhere  tied  to  a  particular  church- 
officer  or  person  extraordinarily  sent,  the  commission  en- 
joining the  administration  being  given  to  them  as  consid- 
ered disciples,  being  men  able  to  preach  the  gospel."  The 
confession  is  in  almost  every  detail  in  thorough  accord 
with  the  views  of  modern  American  Baptists. 

In  1645  Henry  Jessey  himself,  pastor  of  the  original 
Congregational  church  from  which  the  materials  for  seven 
Baptist  churches  had  gone  forth,  was  baptized  by  Hanserd 
Knollys.  Part  of  the  remaining  membership  followed  his 
example,  while  a  part  still  adhered  to  infant  baptism  but 
retained  their  membership  in  the  mixed  church. 

By  1646,  when  a  second  edition  of  the  confession  was 
issued,  a  French  Particular  Baptist  church  had  been  added. 

A  few  remarks  seem  called  for  by  the  obscurity  of  some 
of  the  statements  quoted  above.  It  is  not  possible  out  of 
the  material  that  has  thus  far  come  to  light  to  trace  in  de- 
tail the  evolution  of  the  seven  churches  that  signed  the 
confession  of  1644.  The  statement  quoted  from  the  so- 
called  "  Kiffin  Manuscript"  with  reference  to  the  division 
of  1640  involves  a  number  of  difficulties.  P.  Barebone, 
with  whom  half  of  the  church  withdrew,  has  commonly 
been  regarded  by  Baptist  writers  as  a  Baptist.  Yet  in 
1642  he  published  "  A  Discourse  tending  to  prove  the 
Baptism  in,  or  under,  the  Defection  of  Antichrist  to  be 
the  Ordinance  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  also  that  the  Baptism  of 


PARTICULAR   BAPTISTS.  53 

Infants  or  Children  is  Warrantable,  and  Agreeable  to  the 
Word  of  God,"  and  in  1643  and  1644  he  published  other 
polemical  tracts  against  antipedobaptism.  If  in  1641  he 
was  the  leader  of  the  antipedobaptist  and  immersionist 
half  of  the  dividing  congregation  he  must  soon  after  have 
abandoned  his  position.  This  is,  of  course,  possible. 
From  the  construction  of  the  sentence  Jessey  might  be 
taken  to  be  the  leader  of  the  Baptist  half;  but  it  appears 
that  Jessey  did  not  become  a  Baptist  till  five  years  later. 
This  difficulty  seems  inexplicable  without  further  materials. 

The  party  in  Holland  from  whom  Blunt  received  bap- 
tism were  the  Rhynsburgers  or  Collegiants,  a  party  derived 
probably  from  the  Socinian  antipedobaptists  (1619),  and, 
like  them,  practicing  immersion.  They  had  much  in  com- 
mon with  the  Plymouth  Brethren  of  the  present  century, 
laying  great  stress  on  freedom  of  prophesying,  having  no 
regular  ministry,  and  baptizing  freely,  without  doctrinal 
examination,  those  who  professed  faith  in  Christ.  It  seems 
not  a  little  strange  that  these  English  Calvinistic  Baptists 
should  have  thought  their  position  improved  by  receiving 
baptism  from  such  a  source. 

It  was  an  almost  inevitable  consequence  of  the  circum- 
stances under  which  these  churches  were  formed  that  open 
communion  should  have  been  to  some  extent  practiced. 
The  separations  were  from  the  beginning  peaceful,  and 
when  the  pastor  of  the  original  congregation  became  a 
Baptist,  pedobaptist  members  remained  in  the  church. 
Mixed  churches  involved  open  communion.  William 
Kiffin  became  a  staunch  advocate  of  restricted  commun- 
ion; Henry  Jessey,  John  Tombes,  John  Bunyan,  and 
others  advocated  and  practiced  open  communion.  Re- 
stricted communion  gained  ground  during  the  eighteenth 
century;  but  toward  the  close  of  that  century  and  dur- 
ing the  present  century,   under  the  influence  of    Robert 


54 


INTRODUCTION. 


Robinson,  Robert  Hall,  and  Charles  H.  Spurgeon,  open 
communion  has  become  very  general  among  English,  but 
not  among  Welsh  and  Scotch,  Baptists.  Yet  the  number 
of  close-communion  churches  in  England  is  still  consider- 
able. 

From  1645  until  the  Revolution  (1688)  the  Particular 
Baptists  rapidly  increased  in  numbers  and  influence.  In 
the  Parliamentary  army  a  large  proportion  of  officers  and 
soldiers  were  Baptists.  Through  the  army  Baptist  churches 
were  founded  in  Ireland  and  Scotland.  Through  the  ef- 
forts of  men  like  John  Myles  and  Vavasour  Powell,  Baptist 
principles  were  planted  in  Wales,  which  proved  highly 
fruitful  soil.  Baptists  are  said  to  have  been  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  preventing  Cromwell  from  assuming  the  dignity 
and  prerogatives  of  royalty.  They  became  greatly  dissat- 
isfied with  Cromwell's  military  government,  and  many  of 
them  were  prepared  to  aid  in  the  restoration  of  Charles  II., 
who  was  lavish  in  his  promises  of  toleration.  John  Milton 
was  an  antipedobaptist  and  an  advocate  of  believers'  bap- 
tism, but  there  is  no  evidence  of  his  having  connected 
himself  with  a  Baptist  church.  A  number  of  prominent 
Baptists  (including  Jessey,  Tombes,  Dyke,  and  Myles)  joined 
heartily  in  Cromwell's  state-church  scheme,  acting  as  mem- 
bers of  his  Board  of  Tryers  to  pass  upon  the  qualifications 
of  candidates  for  the  ministry,  and  accepting  pastorates  of 
state- endowed  churches. 

Under  Charles  II.  Baptists  suffered  severe  persecution, 
along  with  other  dissenting  parties.  The  imprisonment  of 
John  Bunyan,  which  is  familiar,  is  a  sample  of  what  Bap- 
tists had  to  endure  from  the  execution  of  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity, the  Conventicle  Act,  the  Five-mile  Act,  and  the 
Corporation  and  Test  Acts. 

With  the  Act  of  Toleration,  under  William  and  Mary 
(1689),  a  period  of  religious  depression   set  in.      At  this 


PARTICULAR   BAPTISTS.  55 

time  the  Particular  Baptists  numbered  many  thousands. 
More  than  a  hundred  churches  united  in  adopting  a  Bap- 
tist recension  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  which  has 
proved  the  most  important  and  influential  confession  ever 
put  forth  by  Baptists.  In  a  slightly  modified  form  it  has 
been  widely  accepted  by  American  Baptists  as  "  the  Phil- 
adelphia Confession." 

During  the  eighteenth  century  the  Particular  Baptists 
made  little  progress.  In  opposition  to  the  current  Socin- 
ianism  a  hard  and  barren  hyper- Calvinism  was  developed, 
in  accordance  with  which  evangelistic  efifort  is  an  imperti- 
nence. Through  the  influence  of  the  evangelical  revival 
of  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Calvinism  of 
John  Gill  and  John  Brine  gradually  gave  way  to  the  more 
benignant  teaching  of  Andrew  Fuller  and  Robert  Hall,  and 
the  great  missionary  movement  inaugurated  by  William 
Carey  became  a  possibility.  PVom  this  time  onward  Eng- 
lish Baptists  have  had  a  highly  honorable  history,  though 
their  American  brethren  are  convinced  that  their  progress 
has  been  hindered  by  the  prevalence  of  open  communion. 

Particular  and  General  Baptists  have  gradually  ap- 
proached each  other  until  the  union  of  the  two  bodies  has 
been  virtually  consummated,  and  the  distinctive  names  will 
doubtle-ss  soon  be  dropped.  The  Baptists  of  all  parties  in 
Britain  number  (1893)  342,507,  of  whom  a  large  majority 
are  of  the  Particular  Baptist  stock. 

The  relations  of  English  Baptists  to  those  of  America 
have  naturally  been  most  intimate.  Nearly  all  of  the  early 
American  churches  had  among  their  constituent  members 
those  who  had  belonged  to  English  Baptist  churches,  and 
nearly  all  received  accessions  from  the  mother-country 
from  time  to  time.  Through  their  generous  beneficence, 
and  their  literature  also,  the  English  Baptists  have  pro- 
foundlv    influenced    those    of   the    New   World.      It   need 


56  INTRODUCTIUX. 

hardly  be  said  tliat  in  later  times  the  influence  through 
literature  and  otherwise  has  been  reciprocal.  During  the 
American  Revolution  English  Baptists  as  a  body  sympa- 
thized deeply  with  their  American  brethren  in  their  strug- 
gle for  civil  and  religious  liberty,  regarding  their  own 
liberty  in  England  as  involved  in  the  issue. ^ 

1  See  letter  of  Dr.  Rippon  to  President  Manning  in  "  Baptist  Memorial," 
vol.  iv.,  p.  133. 


PERIOD    I. 

FROM  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF   THE  FIRST   BAPTIST 

CHURCH   IN   AMERICA  TO  THE  GREAT 

AWAKENING  (1639- 1740). 


57 


THE   BAPTISTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ROGER    WILLIAMS    AND    LIBERTY    OF    CONSCIENCE.^ 

To  Roger  Williams  belongs  the  distinction  of  being  the 
first  in  America  to  introduce  believers'  baptism  and  to  or- 
ganize a  church  on  Baptist  principles.  He  was  probably 
born  in  London  about  1600."-  Under  the  patronage  of 
Sir  Edward  Coke,  the  famous  jurist,  he  was  educated  at 
Sutton's  Hospital  and  at  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
proceeding  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  1627.  Whether  during  or 
shortly  after  the  completion  of  his  university  course,  he 
was  led  to  adopt  rigorous  separatist  principles.  The  Eng- 
land of  1630  was  no  place  for  nonconformists.  In  Decem- 
ber of  that  year  he  set  sail  for  New  England,  hoping  there 
to  be  permitted  to  enjoy  a  measure  of  soul  liberty  denied 
him  at  home,  and  not  without  expectation  of  being  able  to 
exert  some  wholesome  influence  on  the  development  of  the 

1  On  this  and  the  following  chapter  see  "  Pub.  Nar.  CI."  ;  "  Rec.  of  the 
Col.  of  R.  I.,"  i.  ;  Arnold,  i.  ;  Caldwell  in  "  Bapt.  Qu.,"  1872,  pp.  385  s,-(]., 
"Hist.  Disc.,"  and  "His.  First  Bap.  Ch.  in  Prov.  ;  "  Dexter,  "As  to 
R.  W. ;  "  W^inthrop ;  Backus,  "  Hist.  ;  "  Knowles ;  Gammell ;  Straus;  Bar- 
rows in  "  Bap.  Qu.,"  1876,  pp.  353  seq.;  Hubbard;  Hutchinson;  Lechford; 
Mather ;  and  Comer. 

2  "  New  Eng.  Gen.  Register,"  1S89,  pp.  291  seij.  Straus  favors  1607  as 
the  year  of  his  Ijirth. 

59 


5o  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

New  World.  "  Truly  it  was  as  bitter  as  death  to  me,"  he 
wrote  some  years  later  to  the  daughter  of  Sir  Edward 
Coke,  "  when  Bishop  Laud  pursued  me  out  of  this  land, 
and  my  conscience  was  persuaded  against  the  national 
church  and  ceremonies  and  bishops,  beyond  the  conscience 
of  your  dear  father.  I  say  it  was  as  bitter  as  death  to  me, 
when  I  rode  Windsor  way  to  take  ship  at  Bristol,  and  saw 
Stoke  House,  where  the  blessed  man  was,  and  I  then  durst 
not  acquaint  him  with  my  conscience  and  my  flight." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  he  made  considerable 
sacrifice,  not  in  sentiment  alone,  but  in  position  and  pros- 
pects as  well,  in  thus  loyally  following  the  dictates  of  con- 
science. "  God  knows,"  he  wrote  forty  years  afterward, 
"  what  gains  and  preferments  I  have  refused  in  universities, 
city,  country,  and  court  in  Old  England,  and  something 
in  New  England,  to  keep  my  soul  undefiled  in  this  point, 
and  not  to  act  with  a  doubting  conscience."  He  was  not 
only  an  accomplished  scholar  (he  was  familiar  with  the 
Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Dutch,  and  French  languages), 
but  he  had  a  dignity  of  bearing,  an  eloquence  and  persua- 
siveness of  tongue  and  pen,  and  a  force  of  character,  that, 
apart  from  his  influential  connections,  would  have  com- 
manded for  him  the  highest  positions  at  home  or  abroad. 

Landing  in  New  England  in  February,  1631,  an  at- 
tractive opening  almost  immediately  presented  itself.  The 
pastor  of  the  Boston  church  was  returning  to  England  and 
Williams  was  invited  to  supply  his  place.  Did  he  accept 
the  invitation  ?  Far  from  it.  The  Boston  church  was  "  an 
unseparated  church,"  and  he  "durst  not  officiate  to"  it. 
He  was  prompted  to  gi\e  utterance,  while  in  Boston,  to  a 
conviction,  formed  no  doubt  long  before — familiar  and  com- 
monplace now,  startling  and  revolutionary  then  and  there — 
that  the  magistrate  may  not  punish  any  sort  of  "  breach  of 
the  first  table,"  such  as  idolatry.  Sabbath-breaking,  false 


Chap,  i.]  ROGER    WILLIAMS.  6 1 

worship,  blasphemy,  etc. ;  and  he  had  thus  succeeded  in 
convincing"  the  leading-  men  of  the  colony  that  he  was  an 
impracticable  and  dangerous  man — all  the  more  dangerous 
because  of  his  splendid  gifts  and  his  unswerving  loyalty  to 
conscience.  It  was  only  what  might  have  been  expected, 
when  the  Salem  church  a  few  months  later  invited  him  to 
be  their  teacher,  that  six  of  the  leading  men  of  Boston 
should  have  sent  a  joint  letter  of  warning  to  Governor 
Endicott  of  Salem.  Thus  prevented  from  settling  at 
Salem,  he  betook  himself  to  the  older  and  more  thor- 
oughly separatist  Plymouth  colony,  where  he  was  cordially 
received,  and  soon  became  associated  as  teacher  with  Ralph 
Smith,  pastor  of  the  church.  Here  he  remained  about  two 
years.  According  to  Go\'ernor  Bradford,  "  his  teaching- 
was  well  approved,  for  the  benefit  whereof  I  still  bless 
God,  and  am  thankful  to  him  even  for  his  sharpest  ad- 
monitions and  reproofs,  so  far  as  they  agreed  with  truth." 
According  to  Brewster,  elder  of  the  church,  toward  the 
close  of  the  period  Williams  began  to  "  vent  "  "  divers  of 
his  own  singular  opinions,"  and  to  "seek  to  impose  them 
upon  others."  "  Not  finding  such  concurrence  as  he  ex- 
pected, he  desired  his  dismission  to  the  church  of  Salem," 
which,  with  considerable  reluctance  on  the  part  of  some, 
was  granted.  It  is  certain  that  the  influential  people  of 
Boston  were  industriously  fostering  any  spirit  of  dissatis- 
faction that  may  have  arisen.  During  his  stay  at  Plymouth 
he  spent  much  time  with  the  Indians,  and  succeeded  in  so 
far  mastering  their  language  as  to  be  able  to  converse 
freely  with  them  and  afterward  to  write  "  The  Key  into 
the  Language  of  America,"  w^hich  he  hoped  might  proxe 
an  important  aid  in  the  evangelization  of  the  natives  of 
the  entire  continent.  His  friendship  with  the  Indians  was 
afterward  of  incalculable  advantage  not  only  to  himself 
but  to  his  fellow-colonists.      "  Mv  soul's  desire,"  he  wrote 


62  77/^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

some  time  afterward,  "  was  to  do  the  natives  good.  God 
was  pleased  to  give  me  a  painful,  patient  spirit  to  lodge 
with  them  in  their  filthy,  smoky  holes,  even  when  I  lived 
at  Plymouth  and  Salem,  to  gain  their  tongue."  So  great 
was  his  influence  over  them  that  if  he  had  been  bent  on 
making  mere  nominal  Christians  of  them,  he  could,  he 
thought,  have  baptized  whole  tribes. 

In  August,  1634,  he  was  invited  to  succeed  Skelton  in 
the  pastorate  of  the  Salem  church,  having  since  his  arrival 
served  as  assistant  pastor.  The  Boston  authorities  re- 
monstrated, and  a  struggle  ensued  that  resulted  in  Wil- 
liams's banishment  in  the  midst  of  winter,  January,  1636. 
Befriended  by  the  Indians,  after  much  hardship  he  reached 
Narragansett  Bay,  where  he  secured  land  from  the  Indians 
and  established  a  colony  on  the  principle  of  absolute  lib- 
erty of  conscience. 

The  controversy  of  Roger  Williams  with  the  Massachu- 
setts authorities  that  led  to  his  banishment,  and  the  literary 
controversy  that  was  carried  on  between  W^iiliams  and 
Cotton  some  years  after  the  former  had  established  a  col- 
ony of  his  own,  are  matters  of  such  importance  in  them- 
selves, and  have  been  the  occasion  of  so  much  partisan 
writing  on  the  part  of  Baptists  and  the  defenders  of  the 
standing  order  alike,  that  a  clear  statement  of  the  facts 
seems  here  desirable.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the 
idea  of  liberty  of  conscience,  though  it  had  been  advocated, 
as  we  have  seen,  by  the  antipedobaptists  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  though  it  had  been  set  forth  with  the  utmost 
distinctness  and  emphasis  by  the  General  Baptists  of  Eng- 
land during  the  twenty  years  just  preceding  Williams's 
controversy  with  the  New  England  authorities,  had  not 
dawned  upon  the  minds  of  the  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
If  anybody  felt  impelled  to  teach  or  practice  anything  at 
variance  with  the  teachings  and  practices  of  the  standing 


CiiAi'.  I.]  ROGER    WILLIAMS.  63 

order,  the  world  was  wide  and  there  was  room  enough 
outside  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  company  ;  inside  he  could 
not  remain.  The  year  after  Williams's  arrival  (1632)  it 
was  enacted  that,  "  to  the  end  that  the  body  of  the  com- 
mons may  be  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men,  .  .  .  for 
the  time  to  come  no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom 
of  this  body  politic  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of 
the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the  same."  Exclusion 
from  a  church  meant  loss  of  citizenship,  and  the  General 
Court  was  ready  to  execute  ecclesiastical  censures.  We 
can  scarcely  conceive  of  a  more  perfect  equipment  for  the 
exercise  of  tyranny  and  the  violation  of  conscience  than 
existed  in  this  small  community  thus  theocratically  organ- 
ized. That  this  theocratic  legislation  was  not  a  dead  letter 
on  the  statute-book  we  shall  soon  see. 

It  must  be  admitted,  on  the  other  hand,  that  men  of 
convictions  and  conscience  are  not  always  the  most  agree- 
able members  of  society.  The  man  who  concentrates  his 
attention  upon  one  or  two  matters  that  seem  to  the  great 
body  of  his  contemporaries  of  minor  moment,  and  advo- 
cates his  peculiar  views  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  division 
and  to  bring  the  community  into  bad  repute,  can  scarcely 
expect  to  be  cordially  treated  in  any  age  or  in  any  land. 
The  man  who  is  travailing  in  spirit  with  a  great  revolu- 
tionary idea  is  likely  to  do  far  less  than  justice  to  other 
ideas  and  to  existing  institutions,  and  to  act  without  re- 
gard to  immediate  consequences.  Roger  Williams  was  a 
man  of  profound  convictions  on  a  particular  class  of  sub- 
jects. To  us  the  importance  of  .some  of  the  matters  upon 
which  he  fixed  his  attention  is  manifest ;  but  we  are  forced 
to  admit  that  he  was  often  extreme  and  inconsiderate  in 
the  pressing  of  his  convictions.  The  vast  importance  of 
the  absolute  .separation  of  church  and  state,  of  complete 
separation  from  an  apostate  church,  and  of  absolute  liberty 


54  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

of  conscience,  had  completely  mastered  his  soul,  and  con- 
siderations of  expediency  were  as  dust  in  the  balance  in 
comparison.  We  can  do  him  full  honor  for  his  consistent 
advocacy  of  these  principles  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
without  being  unduly  severe  in  our  judgment  of  his  op- 
ponents and  persecutors. 

Let  us  look  more  particularly  at  the  points  in  which  he 
came  in  conflict  with  the  standing  order : 

1.  He  was  an  ardent  separatist,  regarding  the  Church 
of  England  as  utterly  apostate,  and  considering  it  a  sin  to 
have  any  sort  of  communion  with  it  —  a  sin  so  grievous  as 
to  place  those  guilcy  of  it,  or  who  had  fellowship  with 
those  guilty  of  it,  outside  the  pale  of  his  fellowship.  This 
view  he  remorselessly  pressed,  from  the  date  of  his  arrival 
till  that  of  his  expulsion,  at  great  self-sacrifice  and  to  the 
unspeakable  discomfort  of  those  who  did  not  see  eye  to 
eye  with  him  in  this  matter. 

2.  He  was  radically  and  unalterably  opposed  to  the 
charter  of  the  company,  and  regarded  the  colony  as  com- 
mitting an  enormous  sin  in  living  under  it.  He  insisted 
on  having  it  returned  to  King  Charles  without  delay  as  an 
accursed  thing.  In  his  opinion  it  contained  "  matter  of 
falsehood  and  injustice — falsehood  in  making  the  king  the 
first  Christian  prince  who  had  discovered  these  parts,  and 
injustice  in  giving  the  country  to  his  EngHsh  subjects  which 
belonged  to  the  native  Indians."  According  to  his  own 
account  of  the  matter,  written  some  years  later,  he  and 
others — "  not  a  few  " — were  convinced  of  "  the  sin  of  the 
patents,  wherein  Christian  kings  (so  called)  are  invested 
with  right,  by  virtue  of  their  Christianity,  to  take  and  give 
away  the  lands  of  other  men  ;  as  also  the  unchristian  oaths 
swallowed  down  at  their  coming  forth  from  Old  England, 
especially  in  the  superstitious  Laud's  time  and  domineer- 
ing.     And  I  know  these  thoughts  so  deeply  aflflicted  the 


Chap,  i.]  ROGER    IVILLLIMS.  65 

soul  of  the  discusser,  in  the  time  of  his  walkint^  in  the  way 
of  New  Enghmd's  worship,  that  he  at  hist  came  to  a  per- 
suasion that  such  sins  could  not  be  expiated  without  re- 
turning again  into  England,  or  a  public  acknowledgment 
and  confession  of  so-and-so  departing.  To  this  purpose, 
before  his  troubles  and  banishment,  he  drew  up  a  letter 
(not  without  the  approbation  of  some  of  the  chief  of  New 
England,  then  tender  also  upon  this  point  before  God) 
directed  unto  the  king  himself,  humbly  acknowledging  the 
evil  of  that  part  of  the  patent  which  respects  the  donation 
of  land,  etc.  This  letter  and  other  endeavors  (tending  to 
wash  off  public  sins  and,  above  all,  to  pacify  and  give  glory 
unto  God)  it  may  be  that  counsels  from  flesh  and  blood 
suppressed."  From  Governor  Winthrop's  account  it  ap- 
pears that  Williams  charged  King  James  with  blasphemy 
for  calling  Europe  Christendom,  and  applied  to  King 
Charles  some  of  the  most  opprobrious  epithets  in  the 
Apocalypse.  To  this,  among  other  causes,  Williams  at- 
tributed his  banishment.  When  we  reflect  upon  the  ex- 
treme danger  in  which  the  colony  stood  from  unfriendly 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  home  government,  it  is  easy 
to  realize  the  consternation  into  which  the  utterance  of 
such  sentiments,  and  especially  the  proposal  to  write  the 
king  in  person,  setting  forth  the  iniquity  of  the  patent, 
must  have  thrown  the  responsible  leaders  of  the  colony. 
The  ordinary  arguments  by  which  the  appropriation  of 
lands  occupied  by  savage  peoples  was  defended  and  is  still 
defended  were  used  in  vain  on  Roger  Williams.  The  rep- 
resentation of  the  fearful  peril  to  which  he  was  exposing 
the  colony  made  no  impression  whatever  upon  him.  Con- 
science was  uttering  its  x'oice,  and  it  should  not,  in  him  at 
least,  go  unheeded. 

3.    Equally  strong  and  unalterable  were  his  convictions 
afjainst  the  administration   of  oaths  to  the  unregenerate. 


66  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  t. 

and  the  inviting  of  such  to  join  in  prayer  or  in  any  act  of 
worship.  To  protect  itself  against  disloyal  persons  who 
were  likely  to  cause  disharmony  in  the  colony  and  to  send 
slanderous  and  injurious  reports  to  England,  it  was  de- 
cided soon  after  Williams's  arrival  to  administer  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  the  people  indiscriminately.  Most  vehemently 
did  Williams  oppose  the  oath,  "  partly,"  according  to  John 
Cotton,  "  because  it  was  Christ's  prerogative  to  have  his 
office  established  by  oath;  partly  because  an  oath  was  a 
part  of  God's  worship,  and  God's  worship  was  not  to  be 
put  upon  carnal  persons,  as  he  conceived  many  of  the 
people  to  be."  "So  by  his  tenet,"  Cotton  proceeds, 
"  neither  might  church-members  nor  other  godly  men 
take  the  oath,  because  it  was  the  establishment,  not  of 
Christ,  but  of  mortal  men  in  their  office ;  nor  might  men 
out  of  the  church  take  it,  because  in  his  eye  they  were  but 
carnal."  Such  sturdy  opposition  to  a  favorite  measure 
did  not  tend  to  gain  for  Williams  the  favor  of  the  court, 
especially  as  that  self-respecting  body  felt  itself  obliged 
thereby  "to  desist  from  that  proceeding." 

4.  But  the  immediate  and  probably  the  most  influential 
causes  of  Williams's  banishment  were  his  defiant  attitude 
toward  the  court  and  the  leading  churches  of  the  colony 
in  accepting  the  pastorate  of  the  Salem  church  against  their 
earnest  and  oft- repeated  protest,  and  the  proceedings  of 
the  Salem  church  and  colony  under  his  direction  with 
reference  to  a  certain  piece  of  land.  Salem  colonists  peti- 
tioned the  Massachusetts  Bay  Court  for  a  tract  of  land  near 
Marblehead  to  which  they  considered  themselves  entitled. 
What  more  natural  than  that  the  court  should  make  its 
favorable  action  conditional  on  the  church's  making  amends 
for  its  insolent  conduct  in  installing  Williams  as  pastor 
against  the  remonstrance  of  court  and  ministers?  Do  we 
wonder  that  Williams  and  his  church  were  thoroughly  in- 


Chap,  i.]  ROGER    WILLIAMS.  Gj 

dignant  at  this  undisguised  attempt  to  influence  church 
action  by  a  bribe?  Wisely  or  unwisely,  they  framed  a 
red-hot  denunciation  of  the  procedure,  and  sent  it  to  the 
other  churches,  calling  their  attention  to  the  grievous  sin 
committed  by  their  members,  the  magistrates.  The  aim 
of  the  Salem  church  would  seem  to  have  been  to  induce 
the  churches  to  compel  the  magistrates,  by  disciplinary 
means,  to  deal  righteously  or  else  to  vacate  their  offices. 
Williams  has  been  charged  with  inconsistency  in  being  a 
party  to  such  an  admonition;  but  it  is  not  clear  why  the 
Salem  church  was  not  justified  in  appealing  to  sister- 
churches  to  discipline  members  that  had  committed  griev- 
ous wrong.  It  was  not  against  magistrates  as  such,  but 
against  off'ending  church-members,  that  the  complaint  was 
uttered.  But  however  justifiable  the  procedure  may  have 
been,  it  was  certainly  in  the  highest  degree  impolitic. 
The  churches  and  magistrates  were  irritated  thereby  be- 
yond measure,  and  proceeded  to  labor  so  vigorously  with 
the  offending  church  as  to  induce  a  majority  to  abandon 
their  heroic  pastor  and  to  consent  to  his  removal.  Williams 
on  his  part  was  led  to  denounce  in  scathing  language  the 
Massachusetts  churches,  and  to  renounce  communion  with 
them.  Further,  he  would  have  no  fellowship  with  the 
Salem  church  unless  it  would  join  him  in  denouncing 
and  disfellowshiping  the  other  churches.  A  majority  of 
the  members  refusing  so  to  do,  he  never  entered  the 
church  again,  but  held  services  in  his  own  house  with  such 
as  were  faithful  to  his  principles. 

The  decision  to  banish  Williams  was  not  hastily  reached. 
Indeed,  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  court's  freedom  from  con- 
scientious scruples  as  to  the  employment  of  force  in  mat- 
ters of  religion,  and  the  pertinacity  with  which  Williams 
advocated  views  regarded  as  unsettling  and  dangerous,  we 
can  scarcely  fail  to  admire  the  forbearance  of  this  body. 


68  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

The  processes  that  resuhed  in  his  banishment  extended 
over  more  than  a  year.  In  December,  1634,  Wilhams 
was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  next  session  of  the 
court,  to  be  held  in  the  following  March.  The  charges 
preferred  were  those  of  preaching  against  the  charter,  and 
his  "  usual  terming  of  the  Church  of  England  antichris- 
tian."  John  Cotton,  the  Boston  minister,  persuaded  the 
court  "  to  forbear  ci\'il  prosecution  "  until  the  ministers 
should  have  "  dealt  with  him  in  a  church  way  to  convince 
him  of  sin."  Meanwdiile  arose  the  difficulty  as  to  the  free- 
man's oath  already  referred  to.  He  was  arraigned  before 
the  court  and,  in  the  opinion  of  his  opponents,  though  by 
no  means  in  his  own,  "  confuted  "  by  the  ministers.  But 
the  court  was  not  prepared  even  yet  to  adopt  extreme 
measures.  At  about  this  time  (May,  1635)  the  Salem 
church,  in  defiance  of  the  court  and  the  ministers,  proceeded 
to  make  Williams  full  pastor.  Williams  was  no  doubt  en- 
couraged by  this  show  of  confidence  to  continue  his  sharp 
denunciations  of  charter  and  oaths.  In  July  he  \vas  again 
summoned  to  court,  and  charged  with  advocating  opinions 
dangerous  to  the  common  welfare.  Besides  the  matters 
already  mentioned,  he  is  charged  with  maintaining  "  that 
a  man  ought  not  to  pray  with  the  unregenerate,"  and 
"  that  a  man  ought  not  to  give  thanks  after  the  sacrament 
nor  after  meat."  The  controversy  about  the  Marblehead 
land  followed.  A  decree  of  banishment  was  issued  Octo- 
ber 19,  1635,  to  take  effect  within  six  weeks.  A  severe 
illness,  contracted  while  attending  court,  prevented  the 
carrying  out  of  the  decree  within  the  appointed  time,  and 
Williams  was  permitted  to  remain  until  spring,  pro\-ided 
he  would  abstain  from  teaching  his  peculiar  views.  It 
transpired,  however,  that  his  sympathizers  were  in  the 
habit  of  gathering  at  his  house,  and  that  he  was  disre- 
garding   the    restriction.      Arrangements   were    made   to 


Chap,  i.]  A'0G£A'    WILLIAMS.  69 

seize  him  and  transport  him  to  England,  where  he  might 
experience  the  tender  mercies  of  Laud.  Forewarned,  he 
took  refuge  in  the  wilderness.  He  made  his  way  to  his 
Indian  friends,  who  shared  with  him  such  comforts  as  they 
had.  "  I  was  sorely  tossed  for  one  fourteen  weeks,"  he 
wrote  some  time  afterward,  "  not  knowing  what  bread  or 
bed  did  mean."  He  complains  bitterly  in  another  writing 
of  having  been  "  exposed  to  winter  miseries  in  a  howHng 
wilderness."  He  firmly  believed  that  if  he  had  perished 
in  his  wilderness  wanderings  his  blood  would  have  been 
on  the  heads  of  his  persecutors. 

"  If  we  were  forced  to  adopt  a  modern  designation  for 
him,"  writes  Professor  Masson,  referring  to  Roger  William.s, 
"  we  should  call  him  the  father  of  all  that  has  figured  any- 
where, in  Great  Britain  or  in  the  United  States  or  in  the 
British  colonies,  under  the  name  of  voluntaryism."  Else- 
where he  designates  him  as  an  "  arch-individualist."  If 
by  "father"  is  to  be  understood  "originator,"  the  ex- 
pression is  far  too  strong ;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Gen- 
eral Baptists  of  England  were  a  score  of  years  in  advance 
of  him  in  their  advocacy  of  these  very  principles,  and  Wil- 
liams's direct  indebtedness  to  their  pleas  for  liberty  of  con- 
science is  indisputable.  But  if  the  expression  be  taken  to 
mean  that  by  his  persistent  and  zealous  advocacy  of  these 
views,  and  by  his  successful  embodying  of  them  in  a  civil 
constitution,  he  first  brought  them  prominently  before  the 
English-speaking  public,  and  was  instrumental  in  securing 
their  wide  acceptance,  we  do  not  demur.  Yet  even  in  this 
matter  we  should  not  forget  that  the  honor  must  be  divided 
with  John  Clarke. 

Roger  Williams  advocated  the  most  complete  separation 
of  church  and  state  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  historical 
example  of  such  separation  ;  nay,  when  to  the  mass  of 
Christian  men  everywhere  such  a  separation  was  almost 


70  THE  BAPl'lSTS.  [Per.i. 

inconceivable.  The  following  extracts  set  forth  succinctly 
his  view  of  the  relations  of  church  and  state : 

"  The  civil  magistrate  either  respecteth  that  religion  and 
worship  which  his  conscience  is  persuaded  is  true,  and 
upon  which  he  ventures  his  soul,  or  else  that  and  those 
which  he  is  persuaded  are  false.  Concerning  the  first,  if 
that  which  the  magistrate  believeth  to  be  true  be  true,  I 
say  he  owes  a  threefold  duty  unto  it:  First,  approbation 
and  countenance,  a  reverent  esteem  and  honorable  testi- 
mony, .  .  .  with  a  tender  respect  for  truth  and  the  pro- 
fessors of  it.  Secondly,  personal  submission  of  his  own 
soul  to  the  power  of  the  Lord  Jesus  in  the  spiritual  gov- 
ernment and  kingdom.  Thirdly,  protection  of  such  true 
professors  of  Christ,  whether  apart  or  met  together,  as  also 
of  their  estates,  from  violence  and  injury.  .  .  .  If  it  be  a 
false  religion  (unto  which  the  civil  magistrate  doth  not  dare 
adjoin,  yet)  he  owes  :  First,  permission  (for  approbation  he 
owes  not  to  that  which  is  evil).  .  .  .  Secondly,  he  owes 
protection  to  the  persons  of  his  subjects  (though  of  a  false 
worship),  that  no  injury  be  offered  either  to  the  persons 
or  goods  of  any." 

Here  we  have  the  gist  of  his  contention  expressed  in 
his  own  words.  How  ably  and  how  voluminously  he  de- 
fended the  principles  involved,  by  means  of  Scripture, 
history,  and  reason,  any  one  can  see  who  will  take  the 
trouble  to  read  "  The  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution," 
"  The  Bloody  Tenent  Yet  More  Bloody,"  and  other  minor 
treatises  of  his  bearing  on  this  subject. 

Some  time  after  Williams's  banishment  the  learned  and 
pious  John  Cotton  felt  it  his  duty  to  make  one  more  effort 
to  convert  him  from  the  error  of  his  ways.  In  a  long 
letter,  afterward  publislied,  he  attempted  to  justify  the 
New  England  state-church  arrangement,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  the  civil  magistracy  for  the  execution  of  ecclesias- 


Chap,  i.]  JWGEK    WILLIAMS.  Jl 

tical  censures.  He  refused  to  admit  that  Williams  had 
been  hardly  dealt  with,  and  sought  to  throw  the  entire 
responsibility  upon  Williams  himself.  He  even  attributed 
the  severe  illness  Williams  suffered  just  after  the  decree 
of  banishment  to  God's  displeasure  with  his  conduct,  and 
suggested  that  he  should  consider  banishment  from  a 
country  with  whose  inhabitants  he  could  have  no  religious 
fellowship  a  blessing  rather  than  a  hardship.  Williams's 
somewhat  caustic  answer  to  this  letter  was  published  soon 
afterward.  Cotton  published  an  elaborate  rejoinder,  in 
which  he  ransacked  the  Scriptures  for  materials  to  be  used 
in  justifying  the  union  of  church  and  state  and  the  punish- 
ment of  religious  delinquencies  by  the  civil  magistracy. 
His  principal  reliance  was,  of  course,  on  the  Old  Testa- 
ment; but  by  unnatural  and  forced  interpretations  he 
sought  to  bring  a  number  of  New  Testament  passages  to 
the  support  of  his  position.  He  appealed,  moreover,  to 
history,  and  endeavored  to  show  therefrom  the  utter  im- 
practicability of  laisscz  faire  in  religion.  He  sought,  also, 
to  vindicate  his  own  consistency  in  separating  from  the 
Church  of  England  and  in  denouncing  the  Laudian  regime, 
and  yet  in  New  England  refusing  toleration  to  those  who 
differed  from  him.  This  called  forth  Williams's  famous 
"  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution,"  already  mentioned.  Cot- 
ton replied  in  "  The  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution  Washed 
in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb."  Williams  rejoined  in  the  most 
voluminous  of  all  his  works,  "  The  Bloody  Tenent  Yet  More 
Bloody,  by  Mr.  Cotton's  Endeavor  to  Wash  it  White  in  the 
Blood  of  the  Eamb,  of  whose  Precious  Blood,  spilt  in  the 
Blood  of  His  Servants,  and  of  the  Blood  of  Millions  spilt 
in  former  and  later  W^ars  for  Conscience'  sake,  that  most 
Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution  for  cause  of  Conscience, 
upon  a  second  Trial,  is  found  now  more  apparently  and 
more  notoriously  guilty." 


72  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

It  will  be  impracticable  for  us  to  follow  Roger  Williams 
in  the  intricacies  of  his  argument  through  his  thousand 
pages.  A  few  quotations  bearing  upon  one  or  other  as- 
pect of  the  great  question  of  religious  liberty  must  suffice. 
He  .speaks  of  "  that  body-killing,  soul-killing,  and  state- 
killing  doctrine  of  not  permitting  but  persecuting  all  other 
consciences  and  ways  of  worship  but  his  own  in  the  ci\il 
state,  and  so,  consequently,  in  the  whole  world,  if  the 
power  or  empire  were  in  his  [Cotton'.s]  hand."  Again: 
"  Soul  yokes,  soul  oppression,  plunderings,  ravishings,  etc., 
are  of  a  crimson  and  deepest  dye,  and  I  belie\'e  the  chief 
of  England's  sins,  unstopping  the  vials  of  England's  pres- 
ent sorrow^s."  "  Only  tw^o  things,"  he  writes,  "  I  shall 
humbly  suggest  ...  as  the  greatest  causes,  fountains, 
and  tap-roots  of  all  the  indignation  of  the  Most  High 
against  the  state  and  country  :  First,  that  the  whole  na- 
tions and  generations  of  men  have  been  forced  (though 
unregenerate  and  unrepentant)  to  pretend  and  assume  the 
name  of  Christ  Jesus,  which  only  belongs,  according  to  the 
institution  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  truly  regenerate  and  re- 
penting souls.  Secondly,  that  all  others  dissenting  from 
them,  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  their  countrymen  espe- 
cially (for  strangers  have  a  liberty),  have  not  been  permitted 
ci\il  cohabitation  in  this  world  with  them,  but  have  been 
distressed  and  persecuted  by  them."  Again  :  "  The  great- 
est yokes  yet  lying  on  English  necks  are  of  a  spiritual  and 
soul  nature."  "  This  tenet  of  the  magistrates'  keeping  the 
church  from  apostatizing,  by  practicing  civil  force  upon 
the  consciences  of  men,  is  so  far  from  preserving  religion 
pure  that  it  is  a  mighty  bulwark  or  barricade  to  keep  out 
all  true  religion  ;  yea,  and  all  godly  magistrates  for  [from  ?] 
ever  coming  into  the  world."  Here  is  a  fine  bit  of  sar- 
casm :  "  Are  the  armories  of  the  true  King  Solomon,  Christ 


Chap,  i.]  ROGER    WILLIAMS.  73 

Jesus,  disarmed?  Are  there  no  spiritual  swords  girt  upon 
the  thighs  of  those  valiant  ones  that  should  guard  his  heav- 
enly bed,  except  the  sword  of  steel  to  be  run  for  from  the 
cutler's  shop?  Is  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  so  poor  and 
so  weak  and  so  feeble  grown,  so  cowardly  and  base,  that 
neither  the  soldiers  nor  commanders  in  Christ's  army  have 
any  courage  or  skill  to  withstand  sufficiently  in  all  points 
a  false  teacher,  a  false  prophet,  a  spiritual  cheater  or  de- 
ceiver?" "  If  the  elders  and  churches  and  ordinances  of 
Christ  have  such  need  of  the  civil  sword  for  their  main- 
tenance and  protection  (I  mean  in  spiritual  things),  sure 
the  Lord  Jesus  cannot  be  excused  for  not  being  careful 
either  to  express  this  great  ordinance  in  his  will  and  testa- 
ment, or  else  to  have  furnished  the  ci\il  state  and  officers 
thereof  with  ability  and  hearts  for  this  their  great  duty 
and  employment,  to  which  he  hath  called  them." 

As  a  founder  of  a  State  no  less  than  as  an  advocate  of 
a  great  principle  Roger  Williams  deserves  the  gratitude 
and  respect  of  all  lovers  of  religious  and  civil  liberty  ;  and 
it  is  the  glory  of  the  Baptists  that  the  first  State  ever 
founded  on  the  principle  of  absolute  liberty  of  conscience 
was  founded  by  a  man  who  then  and  throughout  his  subse- 
quent life  was  one  of  the  staunchest  advocates  of  funda- 
mental Baptist  principles,  and  who,  shortly  after  he  had 
effected  an  organization  of  the  body  politic,  was  the  first 
to  introduce  believers'  baptism  and  to  organize  a  church 
of  baptized  believers.  Professor  Masson  describes  the 
civic  part  of  WilHams's  life-work  as  "  the  organization  of 
a  community  on  the  unheard-of  principle  of  absolute  re- 
ligious liberty  combined  with  perfect  civil  democracy." 
Having  personally  secured  from  the  natives  for  a  trifling 
consideration  the  land  that  was  needed,  he  admitted  to 
equal    rights    with    himself    twelve    "  loving    friends   and 


74  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

neighbors,"  most  of  whom  were,  Hke  himself,  fugitives 
from  Massachusetts  for  conscience'  sake,  "  and  such  others 
as  the  major  part  of  us  shall  admit  into  the  same  fellow- 
ship of  vote  with  us."  These  promised  to  submit  in 
active  or  passive  obedience  to  all  such  orders  or  agree- 
ments as  should  "  be  made  for  public  good  of  the  body- 
in  an  orderly  way,  by  the  major  consent  of  the  .  .  .  in- 
habitants, .  .  .  only  in  civil  tldiigsy  In  a  later  document 
Williams  writes :  "  Having  made  covenant  of  peaceable 
neighborhood  with  all  the  sachems  and  natives  round 
about  us,  and  having,  in  a  sense  of  God's  merciful  provi- 
dence unto  me  in  my  distress,  called  the  place  Providence, 
I  desired  it  might  be  for  a  shelter  for  persons  distressed 
for  conscience ;  I  then,  considering  the  condition  of  divers 
of  my  distressed  countrymen,  communicated  my  said 
purchase  to  my  loving  friends."  This  first  organization 
took  place  in  1638.  In  securing  the  land  from  the  Indians 
Williams  had  the  valuable  assistance  of  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
who  also  served  him  very  efficiently  a  few  years  later  in 
securing  a  charter. 

In  1640  another  agreement  was  signed  by  thirty-nine 
freemen.  Among  the  articles  was  the  following :  "  We 
agree,  as  formerly  hath  been  the  liberties  of  this  town,  so 
still  to  hold  forth  liberty  of  conscience." 

In  1643  the  Rhode  Island  and  the  Providence  people  re- 
quested Roger  Williams  to  proceed  to  England  for  a  char- 
ter. The  Civil  War  was  raging  when  he  reached  England, 
and  the  Presbyterian  party  was  in  power.  Through  the 
good  offices  of  Sir  Henry  Vane  he  obtained  a  charter  for 
"The  Incorporation  of  Providence  Plantations,  in  the 
Narragansett  Bay,  in  New  England."  This  charter  gave 
full  power  to  the  inhabitants  "  to  rule  themselves,  and  such 
others  as  shall  hereafter  inhabit  within  any  part  of  the  said 
tract  of  land,  b)^  such  form  of  civil  government  as  by  vol- 


Chap,  i.]  ROGER    WILLIAMS.  75 

untaiy  consent  of  all  or  the  greater  part  of  them  they  shall 
find  most  suitable  to  their  estate  and  condition."  Williams 
had  been  obliged  to  sail  from  New  York  in  going  for  the 
charter;  but  in  England  he  received  such  recognition  as 
enabled  him  to  return  by  way  of  Boston.  In  1647  Pro\i- 
dence  and  the  three  Rhode  Island  towns,  Newport,  Ports- 
mouth, and  Warwick,  united  under  the  charter,  and  a  code 
of  laws,  democratic  in  spirit  and  providing  for  liberty  of 
conscience,  was  adopted.  A  fuller  account  of  these  trans- 
actions will  be  given  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

Difficulties  arose  again  about  165  i,  owing  to  the  usurpa- 
tion of  William  Coddington,  supported  by  the  Massachu- 
setts authorities.  Accompanied  by  John  Clarke,  pastor 
of  the  Newport  Baptist  church  and  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential men  in  the  colony,  Williams  again  proceeded  to 
England  in  the  interests  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Cromwell 
was  now  at  the  head  of  the  government,  and  their  mission 
proved  entirely  successful.  After  the  restoration  of  the 
Stuarts  it  was  thought  best  to  secure  a  royal  charter  and 
thus  to  put  the  colony  on  a  footing  of  complete  equality 
with  Massachusetts.  It  must  be  admitted  that  in  becom- 
ing a  party  to  the  securing  of  a  royal  charter  Roger  Wil- 
liams virtually  receded  from  the  radical  position  respecting 
charters  for  which  he  contended  so  pertinaciously  when 
in  Massachusetts,  and  which  constituted  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  his  banishment.  The  staunchest  admirers  of 
Williams  would  hardly  seek  to  justify  his  earlier  position 
with  respect  to  charters,  oaths,  rigorous  separation  from 
the  unregenerate  in  prayer  and  other  religious  exercises, 
etc.  He  continued  to  attach  chief  importance  to  the  titles 
to  the  lands  of  the  colony  that  he  had  secured  from  the 
native  chiefs,  but  he  did  not  disdain  to  secure  the  further 
advantages  which  recognition  by  the  English  government 
would  give.      In  fact  such  recognition  proved  to  be  neces- 


76  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

sary  for  preserving  the  colony   from    anarchy   and    from 
subjugation  by  the  stronger  colonies. 

Apologists  for  the  New  England  theocracy  have  at- 
tempted to  show  that  even  in  Roger  Williams's  colony  the 
rights  of  conscience  were  not  strictly  guarded,  and  that 
j:)enalties  were  inflicted  for  substantially  the  same  classes 
of  offenses  as  those  for  which  Williams  was  banished. 
Among  the  cases  adduced  is  that  of  Samuel  Gorton,  an 
antinomian  and  anarchist,  and  withal  one  of  the  most  vio- 
lent agitators  and  licentious  defamers  of  the  time.  That 
Williams  should  have  used  his  influence  in  favor  of  with- 
holding from  such  a  man  the  rights  of  citizenship  is  thought 
to  be  a  virtual  justification  of  his  own  banishment  for 
agitating  against  the  charter  and  the  freeman's  oath  and 
for  his  revolutionary  procedures  at  Salem.  This  occurred 
in  1640.  Still  earlier  (i63<S),  Verins,  a  "boisterous  and 
desperate  "  young  man,  was  disfranchised  at  Pro\idence 
f<jr  maltreating  his  wife  and  refusing  to  allow  her  to  attend 
church  services,  thus  interfering  with  her  liberty  of  con- 
science. Williams's  severe  polemics  against  the  Quakers, 
and  his  denunciation  of  the  book  of  one  William  Harris  as 
teaching  high  treason,  are  also  cited  as  instances  of  incon- 
sistency with  his  Massachusetts  record,  and  as  completely 
destroying  his  right  to  complain  of  the  treatment  he  re- 
ceived in  Massachusetts.  A  careful  examination  of  the 
cases  cited  will  show,  it  is  believed,  that  the  distinction 
between  civil  and  religious  offenses  was  e\'er  carefully 
guarded  by  Roger  Williams.  At  the  same  time  it  must 
be  admitted  that,  when  the  responsibility  rested  upon  him 
of  dealing  practically  with  disturbers  of  the  peace  who 
sought  to  make  their  religious  convictions  a  pretext  for 
ignoring  civil  regulations  thought  to  be  essential  to  the 
well-being  of  the  community,  he  felt  the  necessity  of 
guarding  against  unwarranted  and  licentious  applications 


CuAV.  I.]  ROGER    WILLIAMS.  J  J 

of  the  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience.  It  is  onl}-  fair 
that  side  by  side  with  his  statement  of  this  great  principle 
we  should  place  his  own  caveat  against  unwarranted  ap- 
plications thereof : 

"  That  ever  I  should  speak  or  write  a  tittle  that  tends 
to  such  an  infinite  liberty  of  conscience  [as  that  it  is  blood- 
guiltiness,  and  contrary  to  the  rule  of  the  gospel,  to  exe- 
cute judgment  upon  transgressors  against  the  public  or 
private  weal]  is  a  mistake,  and  which  I  have  ever  dis- 
claimed and  abhorred.  To  pre\'ent  such  mistakes  I  at 
present  shall  only  propose  this  case :  There  goes  many  a 
ship  to  sea,  with  many  hundred  souls  in  one  ship,  whose 
weal  and  woe  is  common  ;  and  is  a  true  picture  of  a  com- 
monwealth, or  an  human  combination,  or  society.  It  hath 
fallen  out  sometimes  that  both  Papists  and  Protestants, 
Jews  and  Turks,  may  be  embarked  into  one  ship.  Upon 
which  supposal  I  affirm  that  all  the  liberty  of  conscience 
that  ever  I  pleaded  for  turns  upon  these  two  hinges :  that 
none  of  the  Papists,  Protestants,  Jews,  or  Turks  be  forced 
to  come  to  the  ship's  prayers  or  worship ;  nor  compelled 
from  their  own  particular  prayers  or  worship,  if  they 
practice  any.  I  further  add  that  I  never  denied  that  not- 
withstanding this  liberty  the  commander  of  this  ship  ought 
to  command  the  ship's  course ;  yea,  and  also  command 
that  justice,  peace,  and  sobriety  be  kept  and  practiced, 
both  among  the  seamen  and  all  the  passengers.  If  any  of 
the  seamen  refuse  to  perform  their  service,  or  passengers 
to  pay  their  freight ;  if  any  refuse  to  help  in  person  or 
purse  toward  the  common  charges  or  defense ;  if  any  re- 
fuse to  obey  the  common  laws  and  orders  of  the  ship, 
concerning  their  common  peace  or  preservation  ;  if  any 
shall  mutiny  and  rise  up  against  their  commanders  and 
ofificers ;  if  any  should  preach  or  write  that  there  ought  to 
be  no  commanders  nor  officers  because  all  are  equal  in 


78  THE  BAPTISTS.  [ri-.K.  i. 

Christ,  therefore  no  masters  nor  officers,  no  laws  nor  or- 
ders, no  corrections  nor  punishments — I  say:  I  never 
denied  but  in  such  cases,  whatever  is  pretended,  the  com- 
mander or  commanders  may  judge,  resist,  compel,  and 
punisli  such  transgressors,  according  to  their  deserts  and 
merits." 

This  statement  as  to  the  limitation  of  the  application  of 
the  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience  was  made  after  many 
years  of  trying  experience  as  governor  and  chief  citizen  in 
a  new  colony,  which  by  reason  of  the  liberal  basis  on  which 
it  was  constituted  became  the  resort  of  some  of  the  most 
desperate  agitators  against  all  civil  and  religious  order, 
the  triumph  of  whose  principles  would  have  completely 
subverted  the  basis  on  which  the  community  was  founded. 
At  the  same  time  this  view  of  the  matter  forbids  that  we 
should  censure  too  severely  the  Massachusetts  authorities 
for  seeking  to  preserve  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  order  to 
establish  which  they  had  left  luigland,  and  which  they 
supposeci  would  be  jeopardized  by  the  toleration  of  such 
teachings  as  those  of  Williams  before  his  banishment,  or 
those  of  the  Baptists  and  Quakers,  which  they  thor- 
oughly misunderstood,  and  which  they  honestly  supposed 
to  be  fraught  with  the  greatest  dangers  to  the  common- 
weal. While  we  must  accord  all  honor  to  Roger  W'illiams 
for  advocating  liberty  of  conscience  in  all  its  length  and 
breadth  at  a  time  when  he  was  almost  alone  among  men 
of  his  class  and  condition  in  grasping  this  fundamental 
gospel  principle,  we  must  beware  of  looking  with  con- 
tempt on  men  like  Cotton  and  Mather  and  Hooker  and 
Winthrop  for  following  Luther  and  Melanchthon  and  Cal- 
vin and  Knox,  of  the  Reformation  time,  and  the  great  con- 
temporary theologians  of  Europe,  in  regarding  the  doctrine 
of  liberty  of  conscience  as  utterly  impracticable  and  as  sure 
to  result  in  civil  and  religious  anarchv. 


CHAPTER    II. 

ROGER     WILLIAMS    AND    THE     FIRST     BAPTIST     CHURCH 
IN    AMERICA. 

It  remains  to  consider  Roger  Williams's  relation  to  the 
Baptists.  The  great  principle  of  absolute  liberty  of  con- 
science, which  Baptists  had  been  almost  alone  in  advocat- 
ing since  the  early  years  of  the  Protestant  Revolution,  he 
adopted,  wrought  out  in  all  its  consequences,  and  embodied 
in  the  constitution  of  the  colony  which  he  founded.  The 
principle  of  separatism  from  the  corrupt  state  churches 
seemed  to  him  logically  to  involve  the  Baptist  position. 
He  firmly  believed  that  the  prelatical  Church  of  England 
was  an  apostate  church,  and  that  true  believers  should 
have  no  fellowship  whatever  with  such  a  church.  He  repu- 
diated with  the  utmost  decision  ordinances  administered 
by  an  apostate  church,  as  well  as  its  worship  and  teachings. 
He  insisted  with  vehemence  on  regenerate  church- mem- 
bership. His  repudiation  of  Church  of  England  ordinances 
involved,  from  his  point  of  view,  the  repudiation  of  the 
baptism  that  he  and  others  had  received  in  this  commun- 
ion. His  insistence  on  regenerate  membership  involved 
the  rejection  of  infant  baptism.  Having  become  convinced 
that  these  consequences  were  involved  in  his  position,  he 
was  too  faithful  to  his  convictions  not  to  go  where  logic 
led.  Accordingly,  about  March,  1639,  two  years  after  his 
banishment,  he  repudiated  the  baptism  he  had  received  in 
infancy,  and  was  immersed  by  Ezekiel  Holliman,  who  be- 

79 


8o  THE   BAPriSTS.  [Per.  i. 

fore  he  left  IVIassachusetts  had  shown  a  strong  inchnation 
toward  Baptist  principles.  Williams  then  proceeded  to 
baptize  Holliman  and  eleven  others.  Thus  was  founded 
the  first  Baptist  church  in  the  New  World.  It  may  be  of 
interest  to  note  that  the  organization  of  this  first  Baptist 
church  in  America  was  only  about  five  years  later  than 
that  of  the  first  Particular  Baptist  church  in  England  under 
the  leadership  of  John  Spilsbury,  and  that  the  introduction 
of  immersion  by  Williams  was  three  years  in  ad\-ance  of 
its  introduction  among  the  Baptists  of  England.^ 

Precisely  what  personal  influence  was  brought  to  bear 
upon  Roger  Williams  to  lead  him  to  take  this  step  is  un- 
certain. Winthrop  attributes  his  antipedobaptist  views  to 
the  influence  of  Mrs.  Scott,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchin- 
son, the  famous  antinomian  agitator.  It  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  he  was  already  familiar  with  Baptist  princi- 
ples as  held  by  P^nglish  Baptists,  and  his  familiarity  with 
the  Dutch  language  would  make  it  unreasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  he  was  wholly  ignorant  of  the  Mennonites  and 
their  principles. 

It  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of  regret  to  Baptists  that  Roger 
Williams  was  not  able  to  rest  in  what  he  had  done  in  the 
direction  of  restoring  the  ordinances  whose  valid  admin- 
istration had,  in  his  opinion,  been  lost  through  apostasy. 
Like  John  Smyth,  the  founder  of  the  English  General 
Baptists,  he  soon  began  to  doubt  the  warrantableness  of 
thus  introducing  anew  believers'  baptism.  He  had  no 
question  whatever  as  to  the  proper  subjects  or  the  act  of 
baptism.  The  only  question  that  concerned  him  was  that 
of  the  \'alidity  of  administration.  If  the  church  had  ne\'er 
apostatized  believers'  baptism  would  have  been  continued 

1  Contemporary  testimony  is  unanimous  in  favor  of  the  view  that  immer- 
sion was  practiced  by  Williams.  As  this  fact  is  generally  conceded,  it  does 
not  seem  worth  while  to  quote  the  evidence. 


Chap,  ii.]    WILLIAMS  AXD  THE  PROVIDENCE  BAPTISTS.  8  I 

and  would  have  been  obligatory.  But  the  ordinance 
having  been  lost,  he  doubted  whether  it  could  be  restored 
apart  from  a  special  (miraculous)  divine  authorization.  He 
seems  to  have  hoped  that  such  might  hereafter  be  vouch- 
safed. Until  then  he  could  only  occupy  the  position  of  a 
seeker. 

His  relations  with  the  Baptists  continued  to  be  friendly, 
and  several  years  afterward  (1649),  when  a  flourishing 
Baptist  church  existed  at  Newport  under  the  leadership  of 
John  Clarke,  and  the  Providence  church  w^as  still  carrj-ing 
forward  its  work,  he  wrote  to  his  friend  John  Winthrop, 
Jr.  :  "At  Seekonk  a  great  many  have  lately  concurred 
with  Mr.  John  Clarke  and  our  Providence  men  about  the 
point  of  a  new  baptism,  and  the  manner  by  dipping ;  and 
Mr.  John  Clarke  hath  been  there  lately  (and  Mr.  Lucar) 
and  hath  dipped  them.  I  believe  their  practice  comes 
nearer  the  first  practice  of  our  great  p-ounder  Christ  Jesus 
than  other  practices  of  religion  do,  and  yet  I  have  not 
satisfaction  neither  in  the  authority  by  which  it  is  done, 
nor  in  the  manner ;  nor  in  the  prophecies  concerning  the 
rising  of  Christ's  kingdom  after  the  desolations  by  Rome, 
etc."  As  regards  the  manner  of  the  baptism,  it  is  prob- 
able that  he  thought  strict  adherence  to  primitive  practice 
required  trine  immersion,  or  the  kneeling  of  the  candidate 
and  immersion  by  pressing  the  head  forward.  As  regards 
the  interpretation  of  prophecy,  it  appears  that  he  was 
doubtful  whether  we  have  sufficient  reason  to  expect 
a  complete  rehabilitation  of  the  Christian  church  in 
the  present  dispensation.  From  his  correspondence  dur- 
ing this  period  it  appears  that  he  regarded  it  as  prob- 
able that  Rome  would  powerfully  reassert  herself  in  the 
immediate  future,  persecuting  and  destroying,  and  that 
afterward  a  new  dispensation,  perhaps  accompanied  by 
the  second  advent  of  the  Messiah,  would  be  ushered  in. 


82  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

From  his  vigorous,  almost  atrocious,  polemics  against  the 
Quakers,  it  is  evident  that  he  had  no  sympathy  what- 
ever with  their  grounds  for  the  disuse  of  the  ordinances. 
Equally  decided  was  his  antagonism  to  the  mystical  (semi- 
pantheistic)  antinomianism  of  the  time.  In  his  old  age 
(1676),  in  his  writing  against  the  Quakers,  referring  evi- 
dently to  the  Baptists,  who  by  this  time  had  greatly  in- 
creased in  numbers  and  influence  both  in  England  and  in 
America,  he  remarks :  "  After  all  my  search  and  examina- 
tions and  considerations  ...  I  do  profess  to  believe  that 
some  come  nearer  to  the  first  primitive  churches  and  the 
institutions  and  appointments  of  Christ  Jesus  than  others ; 
as  in  many  respects,  so  in  that  gallant  and  heavenly  and 
fundamental  principle  of  the  true  matter  of  a  Christian 
congregation,  flock,  or  society — viz.,  actual  believers,  true 
disciples  and  converts,  living  stones,  such  as  can  give  some 
account  how  the  grace  of  God  hath  appeared  unto  them 
and  wrought  that  heavenly  change  in  them.  If  my  soul 
could  find  rest  in  joining  unto  any  of  the  churches  pro- 
fessing Christ  Jesus  now  extant,  I  would  readily  and 
gladly  do  it."  This  is  substantially  in  accord  with  the 
following  earlier  declaration  (1643):  "The  two  first  prin- 
ciples and  foundations  of  true  religion,  or  worship  of  the 
true  God  in  Christ,  are  repentance  from  dead  works  and 
faith  toward  God,  before  the  doctrines  of  baptism  or  wash- 
ing and  the  laying  on  of  hands,  which  continue  the  ordi- 
nances and  practices  of  worship ;  the  want  of  which  I 
conceive  is  the  bane  of  millions  of  souls  in  England,  and 
all  other  nations  professing  to  be  Christian  nations,  who 
are  brought  by  public  authority  to  baptism  and  fellowship 
with  God  in  ordinances  of  worship,  before  the  saving  work 
of  repentance  and  a  true  turning  to  God."  We  may  be 
sure  that  if  he  had  seen  his  way  to  the  founding  of  a 
denomination  more  apostolic  than  the  Baptist,  and  with 


Chap,  ii.]    WILLIAMS  AXD  THE  PROITDEXCE  BAPTISTS.  83 

ordinances  administered  more  authoritatively,  he  would 
not  have  contented  himself  with  the  one  experiment,  but 
would  have  gone  forward  to  embody  in  practice  any  new 
light  attained ;  that  he  would  have  sought  either  to  con- 
vince his  Baptist  brethren  that  something  was  lacking  to 
the  completeness  of  their  apostolic  standing,  or  to  win 
others  to  his  supposedly  more  apostolic  and  authoritative 
position.  The  fact  is  that  he  remained  a  Baptist  in  every- 
thing except  in  his  demand  for  direct  divine  sanction  for 
the  restoration  of  the  ordinances  long  since  hopelessly  lost. 
Had  Roger  Williams  been  acquainted  with  the  results  of 
the  latest  researches  in  medieval  history  he  would  prob- 
ably not  have  been  so  absolutely  sure  that  the  ordinances 
had  been  lost,  e\en  on  the  supposition  that  apostolic  suc- 
cession is  a  condition  of  their  valid  continuance.  But  he 
was  manifestly  in  error  in  making  the  validity  of  Christian 
ordinances  to  depend  upon  any  ceremonial  or  personal 
qualification  of  the  administrator — the  error  of  the  Dona- 
tists  in  the  early  centuries,  and  of  high-churchmen.  Epis- 
copal and  Baptist,  in  modern  times.  As  in  the  case  of 
many  great  and  good  men  before  and  since  Roger  Wil- 
liams's time,  his  church  life  was  wrecked  and  his  Christian 
usefulness  greatly  impaired  by  his  efforts  to  interpret  the 
prophetical  and  apocalyptic  Scriptures  with  reference  to 
the  events  and  movements  of  his  own  time — a  procedure 
fraught  with  danger,  invariably  resulting  in  error,  and 
oftentimes  ending  in  disaster. 

The  history  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Providence 
after  the  withdrawal  of  Roger  Williams  is  for  some  years 
involved  in  considerable  obscurity.  The  original  records 
have  been  lost,  and  some  have  sought  to  make  it  appear 
that  for  a  time  it  ceased  entirely  to  exist,  and  that  the 
surviving  organization  is  independent  of  the  first.  The 
chief  interest  involved  in  this  contention  has  been  a  desire 


84  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

to  give  precedence  to  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Newport, 
founded  in  1644  or  earher. 

According  to  Governor  Winthrop's  account,  Williams 
was  led  to  introduce  believers'  baptism  and  to  organize  a 
church  on  this  basis  by  Mrs.  Scott,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson and  the  wife  of  Richard  Scott,  who,  after  walking  in 
the  Baptist  way  for  some  time  along  with  Williams,  and 
probably  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  latter,  cast  in  his  lot 
with  the  Quakers.  It  is  not  possible  to  be  sure  of  the 
names  of  the  entire  number  of  those  baptized  by  Williams. 
In  July,  1639,  the  Salem  church,  under  Hugh  Peters,  passed 
the  "  great  censure  "  on  Roger  Williams  and  his  wife,  John 
Throckmorton  and  his  wife,  Thomas  Olney  and  his  wife, 
Stukely  Westcot  and  his  wife,  Mary  HoUiman,  and  Widow 
Reeves.  "  These  wholly  refused  to  hear  the  church,  deny- 
ing it  and  all  the  churches  of  the  Bay  to  be  true  churches, 
and  (except  two)  are  all  rebaptized."  (Felt,  i.,  379,  380.) 
Throckmorton,  Westcot,  and  Olney  were  among  those 
whom  Williams  admitted  to  an  equal  footing  with  himself 
in  relation  to  the  lands  he  had  secured  from  his  Indian 
friends,  and  who  joined  with  him  in  organizing  the  com- 
munity. W^hich  of  the  Salem  excommunicates  were  not 
"  rebaptized  "  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  determine.  Be- 
sides Throckmorton,  Olney,  Westcot,  Holliman,  and  their 
wives,  and  Williams's  wife,  there  must  have  been  two  other 
constituent  members.  These  may  have  been  Richard  Scott 
and  his  wife,  mentioned  above.  Scott  was  not  of  the  orig- 
inal company,  but  appears  among  those  who  were  admitted 
by  the  vote  of  the  company  on  the  payment  of  thirty  shil- 
lings each,  along  with  Chad  Brown  and  William  Wicken- 
den,  who  were  later  to  become  the  pastors  of  the  Baptist 
church.  These  last,  along  with  a  considerable  number  of 
others  admitted  shortly  after  the  organization  of  the  com- 
munity, seem  to  have  been  new  arrivals  from  England, 


Chap,  ii.]    ARMINIAXISM  AND  LAYING  ON  OF  HANDS.       85 

as  their  names  do  not  appear  on  the  roll  of  Massachusetts 
freemen.  It  is  highly  probable  that  several  of  these,  as 
well  as  some  of  the  later  arrivals,  had  been  members  of 
Baptist  churches  in  England,  and  that  some  or  most  of 
this  latter  class  were  General  (Arminian)  Baptists.  The 
early  intrusion  of  Arminian  elements  was  probably  one 
cause  of  the  discord  that  came  perilously  near  wrecking 
this  first  Baptist  church  in  America. 

It  is  probable  that  after  Williams's  withdrawal  Thomas 
Olney,  one  of  the  constituent  members  of  the  church, 
succeeded  to  the  leadership.  The  body  had  no  regular 
meeting-place,  but  assembled  out  of  doors  in  fax'orable 
weather  and  in  private  houses  at  other  times.  It  is  not 
likely  that  the  work  of  evangelization  was  carried  forward 
with  much  vigor,  or  that  the  leadership  of  the  church  was 
energetic.  William  Wickenden,  Gregory  Dexter,  and  Chad 
Brown  seem  to  have  united  with  the  church  soon  after  its 
organization,  and  to  have  held  to  Arminian  views.  Along 
with  Arminianism  they  laid  much  stress  on  the  ceremonial 
imposition  of  hands  after  baptism  as  an  indispensable  qual- 
ification for  church-fellowship.  During  the  early  history 
of  the  Providence  church  it  appears  that  plurality  of 
eldership  prevailed.  It  is  probable  that  Olney,  Brown, 
Wickenden,  and  Dexter  were  coordinate  elders  at  the 
time  of  the  schism  in  1-652.  Following  the  lead  of  the 
early  English  Baptist  churches,  this  church  laid  little  stress 
on  ordination  to  the  ministry  as  a  qualification  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  ordinances,  and  gave  the  fullest  scope 
to  the  exercise  of  "  lay  "  gifts.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any 
of  these  elders  would  have  approved  of  the  use  of  the  title 
"  Rev."  in  connection  with  their  names.  The  complete 
informality  of  the  organization  and  the  services  of  this 
church,  and  the  heterogeneity  of  the  elements  of  which  it 
was  composed,  as  well  as  the  influence  of  antinomians  who 


86  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

abounded  in  the  community,  would  make  a  greater  or  less 
degree  of  discord  a  thing  to  be  expected.  It  is  probable 
that  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  extent  of  Christ's  re- 
demptive work  were  at  the  basis  of  the  first  agitations  in 
the  church.  Roger  Williams  was  a  thoroughgoing  Calvin- 
ist,  and  most  of  the  original  members  of  the  church  were 
probably  at  one  with  him  in  holding  to  particular  redemp- 
tion and  related  doctrines.  Brown,  Wickenden,  and  Dex- 
ter seem  to  have  early  declared  themselves  in  favor  of 
general  redemption  and  related  doctrines.  Apart  from 
the  fact  that  Calvinism  was  the  system  of  the  persecuting 
Puritans  of  England  and  America,  a  Socinianized  Armin- 
ianism  represented  by  the  English  General  Baptists  was  at 
this  time  making  rapid  headway  in  England  and  America, 
and  this  type  of  doctrine  soon  met  with  wide  acceptance 
among  the  Providence  and  Newport  Baptists. 

From  a  remark  in  one  of  Williams's  letters,  it  would 
seem  that  some  members  of  the  community  had  adopted 
radical  views,  involving  universalism,  such  as  the  denial  of 
the  reality  of  hell,  etc.  But  the  chief  matter  of  controversy 
was  the  doctrine  of  the  imposition  of  hands.  Roger  Wil- 
liams himself  laid  considerable  stress  upon  this  rite,  and 
placed  it  alongside  of  baptism  and  the  Supper,  as  follow- 
ing the  former  and  a  condition  of  properly  receiving  the 
latter.  The  matter  was  agitated  among  the  General  Bap- 
tists of  England  from  1646  onward,  and  many  churches 
made  the  passing  under  hands  a  term  of  communion.  In- 
sistence on  the  imposition  of  hands  was  based  on  apostolic 
practice  (as  in  Acts  viii.  12,  19,  and  xix.  6,  7),  and  espe- 
cially on  Hebrews  vi.  i,  2.  "As  God  hath  promised  to 
give  his  Holy  Spirit,"  wrote  Thomas  Grantham,  one  of  the 
ablest  leaders  of  the  English  General  Baptists  ("  Christ. 
Primitiv.,"  bk.  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  chap,  iii.,  p.  31),  "to  all  that  are 
Chilled  of  the  Lord,  so  he  hath  appointed  a  solemn  way 


Chap,  ii.]  THOMAS   OLNEY.  87 

wherein  his  servants  and  handmaids  are  to  wait  upon  him 
for  the  reception  thereof ;  which  way  is,  the  prayers  of  his 
church,  performed  by  her  ministers  or  pastors,  with  the 
laying  on  of  hands  ;  and  this  as  a  principle  of  Christ's  doc- 
trine, belonging  to  them  in  the  minority  of  their  Christian 
state."  In  England  as  in  America  the  laying  on  of  hands 
was  the  occasion  of  much  bitter  controversy,  those  who 
advocated  it  regarding  it  not  merely  as  an  appropriate 
symbol  of  the  receiving  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  might 
be  employed  or  dispensed  with,  but  as  a  "  foundation- 
principle  "  which  could  by  no  means  properly  be  set  aside. 
Finding  it  enumerated  in  Hebrews  \i.  i,  2,  among  "the 
first  principles  of  Christ,"  along  with  "  repentance  from 
dead  works,"  "faith  toward  God,"  "the  teaching  of  bap- 
tisms," "  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,"  and  "  eternal  judg- 
ment," they  insisted  upon  its  observance  along  with  the 
acceptance  of  the  other  five  principles.  Thus  arose  what 
were  called  "  Six  Principle  Baptists." 

The  controversy  among  the  Providence  Baptists  had  be- 
come so  acute  by  1652  that  fellowship  between  those  who 
considered  the  laying  on  of  hands  essential  and  those  who 
either  regarded  it  as  a  matter  of  indifference  or  rejected 
its  use  entirely  was  no  longer  possible.  A  division  now 
took  place,  those  who  were  for  the  recognition  of  only  five 
principles  following  the  leadership  of  Thomas  Olney,  while 
those  who  insisted  on  six  principles  gathered  themselves 
around  Brown,  Wickenden,  and  Dexter.  As  there  was 
nothing  whatever  in  the  way  of  a  church  building,  nor 
anything  the  possession  of  which  would  identify  the  party 
possessing  it  with  the  original  church  to  the  exclusion  of 
a  like  claim  on  the  part  of  the  opposite  party,  it  seems 
futile  to  base  an  argument  for  the  priority  of  another 
church  on  the  supposition  that  one  of  these  parties  rather 
than  the  other  was  the  original  church,  and  that  this  orig- 


88  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

inal  church  afterward  became  extinct.  It  has  been  a.s- 
sumed  by  some  that  Ohiey  and  his  followers  constituted 
the  original  church  founded  by  Roger  Williams,  and  that 
the  party  led  by  Brown  and  others  constituted  a  new 
church,  of  which  the  present  First  Baptist  Church  of  Provi- 
dence is  the  continuation.  The  "  original  church,"  led  by 
Olney,  died.  Therefore  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  New- 
port, organized  in  1644,  is  the  oldest  Baptist  church  in 
America :  Q.  E.  D. !  The  fact  is  that  the  party  led  by 
Chad  Browai  and  others  probably  constituted  a  majority 
and  most  of  the  intelligence  of  the  church,  and  so  far  as 
there  was  innovation  in  relation  to  the  laying  on  of  hands 
it  was  not  in  the  practice  of  the  ceremony,  which  seems 
to  have  prevailed  from  the  beginning,  but  in  making  it  a 
term  of  communion,  which  to  men  like  Olney  seemed  to 
be  going  beyond  the  warrant  of  Scripture.  Some  of  the 
constituent  members  of  the  church  may  have  been  Armin- 
ian  in  sentiment;  by  the  time  of  the  division  the  Armin- 
ians  were  probably  in  the  majority. 

The  historical  notices  of  the  Providence  l^aptist  leaders 
of  this  time  are  meager  and  unsatisfactory.  Of  Thomas 
Olney  little  more  is  known  than  that  he  was  one  of  the 
constituent  members  of  the  Providence  church  ;  that  he 
was  among  those  expelled  from  the  Salem  church  ;  that 
he  had  previously  received  from  the  Massachusetts  author- 
ities a  "  license  to  depart,"  which  was  in  effect  a  decree  of 
banishment  (Felt,  i.,  334);  that  he  was  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  church  after  Williams's  withdrawal ;  that  he  opposed 
the  requirement  of  laying  on  of  hands  as  unwarranted  by 
Scripture  ;  that  he  was  a  member  of  the  committee  ap- 
pointed in  1647  to  form  a  colonial  government;  that  he 
was  one  of  the  "assistants"  under  the  charter  of  1663. 
("  Pub.  Nar.  Club,"  vi.,  283).  He  continued  to  minister 
to  his  congregation   till   his  death  in    1682.      (Backus,  i., 


Chap,  ii.]  WILLIAM    WICKEKDEN.  89 

405  scq})      Olney's  branch  of  the  original  church  ceased 
to  exist  about  i  720. 

WiUiam  Wickenden  was  probably  the  most  active  of 
the  Six  Principle  leaders  at  the  time  of  the  division.  He 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  man  of  good  education,  at- 
tractive manners,  and  considerable  force  of  character.  He 
came  to  Providence  from  Salem,  where  he  had  probably 
but  recently  arriA-ed  from  England,  before  August,  1637 
("  Pub.  Nar.  Club,"  vi.,  329),  and  was  among  those  who 
received  the  privileges  of  the  community  on  the  payment 
of  thirty  shillings.  According  to  a  writer  in  "  Rippon's  An- 
nual Register"  (1801-02,  p.  797),  he  came  to  Providence 
in  1639.  This  date  is  followed  by  Farmer,  Benedict,  and 
Felt.  According  to  Staples  (Felt,  i.,  506),  he  became 
joint  pastor,  with  Chad  Brown,  of  the  Providence  Baptist 
church  in  1642.  We  find  him  (1647),  i'""  view  of  the  dis- 
turbed state  of  the  community,  joining  with  Roger  Wil- 
liams and  six  others  in  setting  forth  a  document  in  the 
interests  of  peace  and  unit3\  They  promise  one  another: 
"  First,  that  the  foundati(Mi  in  lo\'e  may  appear  among  us, 
what  causes  of  difference  have  heretofore  been  given  either 
by  word  or  misbehavior,  in  public  or  private,  concerning 
particular  or  general  affairs,  by  any  of  us  here  present, 
not  to  mention  or  repeat  them  in  the  assembly,  but  that 
love  shall  cover  the  multitude  of  them  in  the  grave  of 
oblivion.  Secondly,  that  union  may  proceed  from  love, 
we  do  promise  to  keep  constant  unto  those  several  en- 
gagements made  by  us,  both  unto  our  town  and  colony, 
and  to  the  uttermost  of  our  powers  and  abilities  to  main- 
tain our  lawful  rights  and  privileges,  and  to  uphold  the 
government  of  this  plantation.  Also,  that  lo\-e  may  ap- 
pear in  union,  we  desire  to  abandon  all  causeless  fears 
and  jealousies  of  one  another,  self-seeking  and  striving  one 
against   another,   only  aiming  at  the   general    peace    and 


go  TFIE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

union  of  this  town  and  colony.  Lastly,  for  our  more 
orderly  proceeding  in  this  assembly,  whereby  love  and 
union  may  appear  in  order,  if  in  our  consultations  differ- 
ences in  judgment  shall  arise,  then  moderately  in  order, 
through  argumentation,  to  agitate  the  same;  considering 
the  cause  how  far  it  may  be  hurtful,  or  conducing  unto 
our  union,  peace,  and  liberty,  and  accordingly  act,  not 
after  the  will  or  person  of  any,  but  unto  the  justice  and 
righteousness  of  the  cause.  Again,  if  such  cause  shall  be 
presented  wherein  such  difficulties  shall  appear  that  evi- 
dent argument  caimot  be  given  for  present  satisfaction, 
but  that  either  town  or  colony  or  both  shall  suffer,  then  to 
take  into  consideration  a  speech  of  a  beloved  friend  :  '  Bet- 
ter to  suffer  an  inconvenience  than  a  mischief ' — better  to 
suspend  with  a  loss  which  may  be  inconvenient  than  to  be 
totally  disunited  and  bereaved  of  all  rights  and  liberties, 
which  will  be  a  mischief  indeed."  (Backus,  i.,  167  scq.) 
It  would  seem  that  Wickenden  was  a  member  of  the  as- 
sembly ;  that  serious  dilTerences  of  opinion  existed  among 
the  signers  of  the  covenant ;  that  Wickenden  was  a  man 
of  more  than  ordinary  influence  in  colonial  affairs;  and 
that  he  along  with  the  other  signers  was  willing  in  a  truly 
Christian  spirit  to  sink  individual  differences  of  opinion  in 
the  interests  of  the  communit)'.  From  a  letter  of  Roger 
Williams  to  John  Whipple,  dated  August  24,  1669  ("  R.  I. 
Hist.  Tr.,"  xiv.,  1881),  it  appears  that  for  a  time  at 
least  Wickenden's  Arminianism  assumed  a  somewhat  So- 
cinian  hue:  "I  am  sorry  that  you  venture  to  play  with 
the  fire,  and  W.  Wickenden  is  toasting  himself  in  it,  and 
my  want  of  tongs  to  rake  him  out  without  burning  my 
fingers,  etc.  You  know  who  it  is  that  counts  you  and  us 
as  fools  for  believing  the  Scriptures — namely,  that  there 
shall  be  any  hell  at  all,  or  punishment  for  sin  after  this  life. 
But  I  am  content  to  be  a  fool  with  Jesus  Christ,  who  tells 


Chap,  ii.]  GREGORY  DEXTER.  9I 

us  of  an  account  for  every  idle  word  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment." We  need  not  suppose  that  the  whole  of  this  dam- 
aging remark  refers  to  Wickenden ;  but  he  was  evidently 
entertaining  views  on  important  questions  that  Williams 
considered  in  the  highest  degree  dangerous.  A  writer  in 
"  Rippon's  Annual  Register"  (1802,  p.  797)  states  that 
"  he  died  February  2^,  1670  "  (N.  S.),  after  having  remo\-ed 
to  a  place  called  Solitary  Hill.  Wickenden  extended  his 
labors  to  New  York,  where,  in  1656,  he  was  imprisoned  for 
baptizing  and  administering  the  Lord's  Supper  at  Flush- 
ing. After  the  division  of  the  Providence  church,  in  1652, 
William  Vaughan,  a  member  of  the  Newport  church,  who 
had  adopted  the  Six  Principle  position,  went  to  Provi- 
dence to  receive  the  imposition  of  hands,  and  returned 
accompanied  by  Wickenden  and  Gregory  Dexter.  The 
aim  of  the  three  was  probably  to  organize  a  Six  Principle 
church  at  Newport.  They  were  not  immediately  suc- 
cessful. 

Gregory  Dexter  was  for  many  years  one  of  the  most 
influential  men  in  the  colony.  Beyond  any  of  the  Baptist 
citizens  of  Providence,  perhaps,  he  was  a  man  of  afifairs, 
and  was  much  employed  in  the  public  service.  It  is  not 
certain  when  he  arrived  at  Providence.  He  is  said  to 
have  received  one  of  the  "  home  lots,"  which  would  seem 
to  establish  his  early  presence.  His  name  appears  among 
the  signers  of  the  first  compact  of  1640,  but  may  have 
been  added  at  a  later  date.  He  was  a  printer  and  stationer 
of  reputation  in  London,  and  had  probably  become  noted 
as  a  zealous  separatist.  His  flight  from  England  is  said 
to  have  been  occasioned  by  the  publication  of  a  writing 
obnoxious  to  the  government.  Roger  Williams's  "  Key 
to  the  Lidian  Language,"  published  in  London  in  1643, 
bears  his  imprint.  Benedict  supposes  that  he  did  not 
reach  Providence  until  1644,  which  would  be  the  natural 


92  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

inference  from  the  last-named  fact,  apart  from  decisive 
evidence  of  his  eadier  presence.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
experienced  printers  to  come  to  America,  and  spent  some 
time  in  Boston  each  year  assisting  in  the  pubHcation  of  an 
ahnanac,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was  a  zealous 
Baptist  and  that  Baptists  were  under  the  ban  in  Massa- 
chusetts. After  the  securing  of  the  first  charter  he  was  a 
member  of  the  committee  from  Providence  to  form  a  gov- 
ernment. For  years  he  was  town  clerk,  and  from  time  to 
time  occupied  the  positions  of  commissioner  for  the  town 
and  deputy  in  the  assembly.  He  was  president  of  the 
colony  in  1653.  (Backus,  ii.,  491.)  In  1654  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  town  to  draw  up,  in  association  with  Roger 
Williams,  an  address  to  Sir  Henry  Vane  on  the  occasion 
of  his  retirement  "from  the  helm  of  public  affairs."  The 
document  was  probably  drafted  by  Williams,  but  it  was 
signed  by  Dexter  alone  on  behalf  of  the  town.  ("  Pub. 
Nar.  CI.,"  vi.,  266  scq.)  During  Williams's  absence  in 
P2ngland  on  colonial  business,  in  1652-53,  he  carried  on  a 
friendly  correspondence  with  Dexter.  A  very  affectionate 
and  most  interesting  letter  from  Williams  has  been  pre- 
served. ("Pub.  Nar.  CI.,"  vi.,  235  scq.)  Referring  to 
Dexter's  well-known  proficiency  in  the  printer's  craft,  he 
writes :  "  It  hath  pleased  God  so  to  engage  me  in  divers 
.skirmishes  against  the  priests,  both  of  Old  and  New  Eng- 
land, so  that  I  have  occasioned  using  the  help  of  printer- 
men,  unknown  to  me,  to  long  for  my  old  friend."  "  Many 
friends  have  frequently,  with  much  love,  inquired  after 
you."  Williams  commends  his  "poor  companion"  and 
their  "  many  children,"  from  whom  he  was  obliged  for  so 
long  a  time  to  be  absent,  to  Dexter's  "  love  and  faithful 
care."  "  Abundance  of  love  remembered  from  abundance 
of  friends  to  your  dear  self  and  your  dearest."  In  1669 
Wilhams  felt  called  upon  to  rebuke  Dexter  for  his  refusal 


Chap,  ii.]  GREGORY  DEXTER.  93 

to  pay  certain  taxes  on  the  plea  of  conscientious  scruples. 
Referring  to  this  matter  in  a  letter  to  John  Whipple  he 
writes :  "  The  last  night  Shadrach  Manton  told  me  that  I 
had  spoken  bad  words  of  Gregory  Dexter —  .  .  .  viz.,  that 
I  said  he  makes  a  fool  of  his  conscience.  I  told  him  I 
said  so,  and,  I  think,  to  our  neighbor  Dexter  himself;  for  I 
believe  he  might  as  well  be  moderator  or  general  deputy 
or  general  assistant  as  go  so  far  as  he  does  in  many  par- 
ticulars ;  but  what  if  I  or  my  conscience  be  a  fool,  yet  it 
is  commendable  and  admirable  in  him,  that,  being  a  man 
of  education  and  of  a  noble  calling,  and  versed  in  milita- 
ries, that  his  conscience  forced  him  to  be  such  a  child  in 
his  own  house,  when  W.  Har.  strained  for  the  rate  (which 
I  approve  of)  with  such  imperious  insulting  over  his  con- 
science, which  all  conscientious  men  \\\\\  abhor  to  hear  of. 
However,  I  commend  that  man,  whether  Jew  or  Turk  or 
Papist  or  whoever,  that  steers  no  otherwise  than  his  con- 
science dares,  till  his  conscience  tells  him  that  God  gives 
him  a  greater  latitude.  For,  neighbor,  you  shall  find  it 
rare  to  meet  with  men  of  conscience,  men  that  for  fear 
and  love  of  God  dare  not  lie,  nor  be  drunk,  nor  be  con- 
tentious, nor  steal,  nor  be  covetous,  nor  voluptuous,  nor 
ambitious,  nor  lazybodies,  nor  busybodies,  nor  dare  dis- 
please God  by  omitting  either  service  or  suffering,  though 
of  reproach,  imprisonment,  banishment,  and  death,  because 
of  the  fear  and  love  of  God."  ("Pub.  Nar.  CI.,"  vi., 
328  scq.)  A  few  weeks  later,  in  a  letter  to  Governor 
Winthrop :  "Sir,  I  have  encouraged  Mr.  Dexter  to  send 
you  a  limestone,  and  to  salute  you  with  this  inclosed.  He 
is  an  intelligent  man,  a  master  printer  of  London,  and 
conscionable  (though  a  Baptist),  therefore  maligned  and 
traduced  by  William  Harris  (a  doleful  generalist).  Sir,  if 
there  be  any  occasion  of  yourself  (or  others)  to  use  any  of 
this  stone,  Mr.  Dexter  hath  a  lusty  team  and  lusty  sons, 


94  THE  BAPTISTS.  [riR.  i. 

and  very  willing  heart  (beiny;  a  sanguine,  cheerful  man),  to 
do  yourself  or  any  (at  your  word  especially)  service  upon 
my  \sic  ;  probably  written  vcr}'\  honest  and  cheap  consid- 
erations." {Ibid.,  332.)  According  to  the  writer  of  the 
article  in  "  Rippon's  Annual  Register"  (as  above):  "He 
was  never  observed  to  laugh,  and  seldom  to  smile.  So 
earnest  was  he  in  the  ministry  that  he  could  hardly  for- 
bear preaching  when  he  came  into  a  house  or  met  a  num- 
ber of  persons  in  the  street.  His  sentiments  were  those 
of  the  Particular  Baptists.  He  died  in  the  ninety-first 
year  of  his  age."  The  date  of  his  death  is  given  by  Sav- 
age ("  Genealogical  Dictionary  ")  as  1700.  The  statement 
that  his  sentiments  were  those  of  the  Particular  Baptists  is 
questionable.  It  is  certain  that  Wickenden,  with  whom 
he  labored  harmoniously,  held  to  Arminian  views ;  and 
insistence  on  the  imposition  of  hands,  in  which  Dexter 
joined,  was  characteristic  of  the  General  Baptists.  Still  it 
is  not  impossible  that  he  differed,  in  a  quiet  way,  from  the 
majority  of  his  Six  Principle  brethren  as  regards  the  uni- 
versality of  redemption  and  related  doctrines,  and  on  these 
points  was  in  agreement  with  his  lifelong  friend,  Roger 
Williams. 

Chad  Brown  was  probably  of  more  importance  to  the 
Baptist  cause  in  Providence  than  either  of  the  leaders  pre- 
viously noticed.  The  fact  that  he  was  the  ancestor  of  the 
four  Brown  brothers  who  in  the  eighteenth  century  con- 
tributed so  largely  of  their  time  and  their  means  to  the 
advancement  of  the  Baptist  cause  in  Providence,  and  who 
gave  their  substance  and  their  name  to  what  was  formerly 
Rhode  Island  College,  has  tended  to  keep  his  memory 
fragrant.  He  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Providence, 
being  the  first  of  those  admitted  to  participation  in  the 
property  and  rights  of  the  community  after  the  original 
thirteen.      Like  most  of  the  Providence  men,  he  had  left 


Chap,  ii.]  CHAD  BROIVN.  95 

Massachusetts  for  conscience'  sake.  Probably  as  early  as 
1642  he  was  among  the  leaders  in  the  Baptist  church,  and 
was  associated  with  Wickenden  and  Dexter  in  contending 
for  the  imposition  of  hands.  He  was  among  the  four  citi- 
zens chosen  in  1640  to  form  a  government.  He  had 
much  to  do  with  determining  the  bounds  of  the  lands  of 
the  colony,  and  his  efforts  in  this  direction  were  regarded 
as  highly  beneficent.  Roger  Williams  wrote  of  him  in 
1669  as  "  that  noble  spirit,  now  with  God,  Chad  Brown." 
According  to  Dr.  R.  A.  Guild,  the  highest  living  authority 
on  Providence  history,  "  his  death  was  regarded  by  the 
colonists  as  a  public  calamity,  for  he  had  been  the  suc- 
cessful arbitrator  of  many  differences,  and  had  won  the 
not  unenviable  reputation  of  being  a  peacemaker."  He 
died  about  1665. 

Little  that  is  memorable  has  been  recorded  with  respect 
to  the  further  history  of  the  Providence  church  until  the 
time  of  James  Manning  (1770  onward).  Under  Pastor 
Tillinghast,  and  largely  at  his  own  expense,  the  first  meet- 
ing-house was  erected  in  i  700.  The  most  noted  pastor  of 
the  period  was  probably  Ebenezer  Jenckes,  whose  brother 
was  governor  of  the  colony.  He  was  born  in  Paw- 
tucket  in  1669  and  ordained  in  17 19,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first  American  minister  who  preached  in  Provi- 
dence. (Benedict,  453.)  Governor  Jenckes  was  himself 
a  member  of  this  church.  He  was  for  a  number  of  years 
colonial  ambassador  to  England.  A  son  of  the  governor, 
Daniel  Jenckes,  was  for  forty-eight  years  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  church  and  for  forty  years  a  member  of  the 
assembly,  was  chief-justice  of  the  county,  and  was  a  lib- 
eral contributor  to  church  and  college.  Among  the  other 
pastors  of  the  period  were  Thomas  Olney,  Jr.,  and  James 
Brown,  grandson  to  Chad  Brown. 


CHAPTER    III. 

JOHN    CLARKE    AND    THE    BAPTISTS    OF   NEWPORT.^ 

Though  second  to  the  Providence  church  in  point  of 
date,  the  Newport  church  deserves  the  first  place  as  re- 
gards the  consistent  and  persistent  devotion  of  its  leaders 
to  Baptist  principles,  the  thoroughness  and  vigor  of  its 
organization,  and  its  evangelistic  zeal.  The  exact  date  ol 
its  organization  cannot  be  determined.  The  latest  admis- 
sible date  is  1644,  but  there  is  some  probability  in  favor 
of  an  earlier  date.  The  founder  and  for  many  years  the 
pastor  of  this  church  was  John  Clarke,  who  deserves  a 
high  place  on  the  roll  of  Baptist  worthies.  Born  in  Eng- 
land (probably  in  Suffolk,  possibly  in  Bedfordshire),  Octo- 
ber 8,  1609,  highly  educated  in  arts  and  in  medicine  (we 
know  not  where  or  how),  a  pronounced  separatist  before 
he  left  England  (whether  a  pedobaptist  or  an  antipedo- 
baptist  we  are  not  informed),  he  arrived  at  Boston,  Novem- 
ber, 1637,  hoping  to  find  among  those  who  had  sought  in 
the  New  World  immunity  from  persecution  a  spirit  of 
toleration.  To  quote  his  own  account  of  his  early  experi- 
ences:  "  I  was  no  sooner  on  shore  but  there  appeared  to 
me  to  be  differences  among  them  touching  the  Covenants ; 
and  in  point  of  evidencing  a  man's  good  estate,  some 
pressed  hard  for  the  Covenant  of  works,  others  pressed  as 

1  Clarke,  "  111  News;"  "  Rec.  of  the  Col.  of  R.  I.,"  i.  ;  Arnold,  i.  ; 
Backus;  Winthrop  ;  Hulibard;  Lechford ;  Barrows,  "  Hist.  Sketch,"  "  Dev. 
of  Bapt.'Pr.  in  R.  I.,"  "  Rapt.  Qu.,"  1872,  pp.  483  seq.  ;  J-  C.  C.  Clarke, 
in  "  Bapt.  Qu.,"  1876,  pp.  x'Soscq.;   Adlam  ;   Callender ;   Comer. 

96 


Chai\  111.]       SETTLEMEXT  OE  RHODE  ISLAXD.  97 

hard  for  the  Covenant  of  grace  that  was  estabhshed  upon 
better  promises,  and  for  the  evidence  of  the  Spirit,  as  that 
which  is  a  more  certain,  constant,  and  satisfactory  witness. 
I  thought  it  not  strange  to  see  men  differ  about  matters  of 
Heaven,  for  I  expect  no  less  upon  Earth :  But  to  see  that 
they  were  not  able  so  to  bear  with  each  other  in  their  dif- 
ferent understandings  and  consciences  as  in  those  utmost 
parts  of  the  World  to  live  peaceably  together,  whereupon 
I  moved  the  latter,  forasmuch  as  the  land  was  before  us 
and  wide  enough,  with  the  proffer  of  Abraham  to  Lot,  and 
for  peace'  sake,  to  turn  aside  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the 
left.  The  motion  was  readily  accepted,  and  I  was  requested 
with  some  others  to  seek  out  a  place."  The  controversy 
referred  to  was  that  over  the  so-called  antinomian  teach- 
ings of  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson.  In  assuming  the  leader- 
ship of  a  new  colony,  the  majority  of  whose  members  were 
in  sympathy  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  views,  and  in  which 
the  Hutchinson  family  was  embraced,  Clajke  in  no  way 
committed  himself  to  the  errors  of  the  antinomians.  He 
agreed  with  them  in  insisting  on  liberty  of  conscience ;  he 
beheved  that  they  ought  to  seek  a  place  where  they  could 
hold  their  views  in  freedom ;  he  was  himself  conscious  of 
such  a  degree  of  incompatibility  with  the  doctrines  and 
the  spirit  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy  that  he  could  not 
hope  peaceably  to  abide  in  the  colony  ;  and  for  the  purpose 
of  founding  a  new  colony  in  which  liberty  of  conscience 
should  prevail  he  was  willing  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  these 
errorists. 

Clarke's  narrative  continues:  "Thereupon,  by  reason  of 
the  suffocating  heat  of  the  summer  before,  I  went  to  the 
North  [New  Hampshire]  to  be  somewhat  cooler,  but  the 
winter  following  proved  so  cold  that  we  were  forced  in  the 
spring  to  make  toward  the  South ;  so,  having  sought  the 
Lord  for  direction,  we  all  agreed  that,  while  our  vessel  was 


g8      •  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

passing  about  a  large  and  dangerous  cape,  we  would  cross 
over  by  land,  having  Long  Island  and  Delaware  Bay  in 
our  eye  for  the  place  of  our  residence  ;  so  to  a  town  called 
Providence  we  came,  which  was  begun  by  one  M.  Roger 
Williams  (who  for  matter  of  conscience  had  not  long  be- 
fore been  exiled  from  the  former  jurisdiction),  by  whom 
we  were  courteously  and  lovingly  received,  and  with  whom 
we  advised  about  our  design."  The  result  was  that,  after 
other  places  had  been  considered,  with  the  approval  of 
Williams  and  of  the  Plymouth  magistrates  they  settled 
on  the  island  of  Aquidneck,  soon  afterward  named  Rhode 
Lsland.  Through  the  kindly  offices  of  Williams  they  were 
enabled  to  secure  from  the  Indians  a  title  to  the  island. 

On  the  "  7th  day  of  the  first  month  "  (March,  1638)  the 
colony  was  solemnly  organized :  "  We  whose  names  are 
underwritten  do  here  solemnly,  in  the  presence  of  Jeho- 
vah, incorporate  ourselves  into  a  body  politic,  and,  as  he 
shall  help,  will  submit  our  persons,  lives,  and  estates  unto 
cur  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of 
Lords,  and  to  all  those  perfect  and  most  absolute  laws  of 
his  given  us  in  his  holy  word  of  truth,  to  be  guided  and 
judged  thereby."  Nineteen  names  of  the  male  members 
of  the  party  follow,  the  list  being  headed  by  those  of  Wil- 
liam Coddington  and  John  Clarke.  Coddington,  who  had 
had  much  experience  in  governmental  matters  in  Massa- 
chusetts, was  appointed  judge  or  chief  magistrate.  He 
covenanted  "  to  do  justice  and  judgment  impartially  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  God,  and  to  maintain  the  funda- 
mental rights  and  privileges  of  this  body  politic." 

It  should  be  observed  that  at  the  time  of  the  formation 
of  tliis  colony  Roger  Williams's  Providence  was  still  in  a 
rudimentary  state,  with  a  population  small  in  comparison 
with  that  of  the  Aquidneck  colony,  and  with  scarcely  the 
beginnings  of  organized  political  life.     The  colony  under 


CiiAi'.  III. J  PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.  99 

Clarke  and  Coddington  was  not  only  numerically  far 
stronger  than  that  under  Williams,  but  it  embraced  far 
more  of  culture  and  of  political  experience  and  wisdom. 
Portsmouth  was  the  first  part  of  the  island  to  be  settled. 
In  April,  1639,  Coddington,  Clarke,  and  others  organized 
a  new  community  at  Newport.  Portsmouth  and  Newport 
were  reunited  in  1640.  In  1643,  as  already  stated,  Roger 
Williams  was  sent  to  England  by  the  Rhode  Island  and 
Providence  people  conjointly  to  secure  a  charter.  The 
charter  was  secured,  but — partly,  it  may  be,  on  account  of 
the  designation  "  Providence  Plantations,"  which  may  have 
seemed  to  give  a  certain  ascendency  to  Providence — the 
union  of  the  three  settlements  under  the  charter  did  not 
take  place  till  1647. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  stress  that  was  laid — as  seen 
in  the  first  act  of  incorporation  and  in  subsequent  legisla- 
tion— on  the  sole  headship  of  Christ  and  on  the  principle 
of  ci\il  and  religious  liberty.  While  accepting  the  word 
of  God  as  the  embodiment  of  perfect  and  absolute  laws 
by  which  they  agreed  to  be  guided  and  judged,  they  were 
careful  to  limit  punishment  for  breaches  of  the  laws  of  God 
to  such  as  "tend  to  civil  disturbance."  In  1641  it  was 
"  ordered,  and  unanimously  agreed  upon,  that  the  govern- 
ment which  this  body  politic  doth  attend  unto  in  this 
Island,  and  the  jurisdiction  thereof  in  favor  of  our  prince, 
is  a  DEMOCRACY,  or  popular  government."  It  was 
further  ordered  "  that  none  be  accounted  a  delinquent  for 
DOCTRINE  provided  it  be  not  directly  repugnant  to  the 
government  or  laws  established."  In  September,  1641,  it 
was  ordered  "  that  the  law  of  the  last  court,  made  con- 
cerning liberty  of  conscience  in  point  of  doctrine,  is  perpet- 
uated." The  toleration  principles  of  the  Rhode  Islanders, 
as  well  as  those  of  the  Providence  people,  were  soon  put  to 
a  severe  test.     Samuel  Gorton,  a  man  of  education  and 


lOO  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  i. 

ability,  who  represented  antinomianism  in  some  of  its 
worst  features,  first  at  Portsmouth  and  then  at  Providence 
sought  to  overthrow  the  estabhshed  forms  of  government 
and  to  arouse  the  people  to  revolt.  His  anarchism  was 
grounded  in  his  religious  views ;  and  with  his  thoroughly 
perverse  but  pretentious  interpretation  of  Scripture,  and 
his  intense,  magnetic  personality,  he  was  able  to  secure  a 
considerable  following.  At  Portsmouth  he  was  whipped 
and  expelled ;  while  even  Roger  Williams  opposed  his 
receiving  the  privileges  of  citizenship  at  Providence  and 
planned  to  move  out  of  the  colony  himself  should  the 
favorers  of  Gorton  succeed  in  securing  his  admission. 

In  the  incorporation  of  Portsmouth,  Newport,  Provi- 
dence, and  Warwick,  as  "  Providence  Plantations,  in  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay,  in  New  England,"  under  the  charter  se- 
cured by  Williams,  Clarke  was  probably  more  influential 
than  Williams  himself.  The  model  of  government  pre- 
pared by  the  islanders,  in  which  Clarke's  influence  was  no 
doubt  predominant,  was  accepted  substantially  by  the 
Providence  representatives.  ("  Rec.  of  the  Col.  of  R.  I. 
and  Prov.  Plant.,"  i.,  147  scq.)  Roger  Williams  has  re- 
ceived more  credit  than  is  his  due  for  the  Code  of  Laws 
adopted  by  the  united  colonies  in  1647.  They  were  cer- 
tainly drawn  up  in  substantially  the  form  in  which  they 
were  adopted  by  the  islanders,  and  external  and  internal 
evidences  point  to  Clarke  as  the  principal  author.  In  the 
preamble  it  is  agreed  and  declared  "  that  the  form  of 
Government  established  in  Providence  Plantations  is 
DEMOCRATICAL;  that  is  to  say,  a  Government  held 
by  tne  free  and  voluntary  consent  of  all  or  the  greater 
part  of  the  free  inhabitants."  The  preamble  closes: 
"  And  now  to  the  end  that  we  may  give,  each  to  other 
(notwithstanding  our  different  consciences  touching  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  whereof  upon  the  point  we  all  make 


Chap,  hi.]   CLARKE  AND  LIBERTY  OF  COXSCIEXCE.  loi 

mention),  as  good  and  hopefid  assurance  as  we  are  able, 
touching  each  man's  peaceable  and  quiet  enjoyment  of 
his  lawful  right  and  liberty,  we  do  agree  unto,  and  .  .  . 
enact,  establish,  and  confirm,  these  orders  following."  The 
Code  is,  naturally,  based  upon  English  law,  but  it  is  in 
every  way  admirably  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  colo- 
nists. It  would  be  impossible  to  find  a  document  of  the 
kind  in  which  the  rights  of  individuals  and  of  the  com- 
munity are  more  carefully  guarded.  The  document  closes 
with  these  noble  words,  that  have  been  quoted  so  often  as 
to  have  become  famous:  "These  are  the  Laws  that  con- 
cern all  men,  and  these  are  the  Penalties  for  the  trans- 
gression thereof,  which  by  common  consent  are  Ratified 
and  Established  throughout  this  whole  Colony  ;  and  other- 
wise than  thus  \\'hat  is  herein  forbidden  all  men  may  walk 
as  their  consciences  persuade  them,  every  one  in  the  name 
of  his  God.  And  let  the  Saints  of  the  Most  High  walk  in 
this  Colony  without  INIolestation  in  the  name  of  Jehovah, 
their  God,  forever  and  ever." 

Although  John  Clarke  did  not  write  as  voluminously  on 
the  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience  as  did  Roger  Williams, 
and  although  Williams  was  in  advance  of  Clarke  in  pub- 
lishing his  views  to  the  w^orld,  it  is  probable  that  Clarke 
had  embraced  these  views  some  time  before  he  knew  of 
Williams.  When  he  reached  Boston  in  1637  liis  indigna- 
tion at  the  denial  of  liberty  of  conscience  by  the  Massachu- 
setts authorities  was  soon  made  manifest.  That  he  was 
fr<nn  this  time  onward  as  thoroughly  mastered  b}^  this 
fundamental  Baptist  principle  as  was  Williams  himself  is 
evident  from  his  logical  and  comprehensive  defense  of  this 
principle  in  his  "  111  News  from  New  I^igland  "  (1652),  as 
well  as  from  his  consistent  adherence  to  this  principle  in 
his  public  life  and  in  the  legislation  that  he  influenced 
from  1638  till  his  death  in  1675.     His  argument  for  liberty 


I02  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

of  conscience  in  the  work  referred  to  is  so  able  and  apt 
tliat  it  deserves  some  further  notice.  In  expounding  his 
position  to  the  Massachusetts  authorities  in  1651,  when 
along  with  Holmes  and  Crandall  he  was  called  upon  to 
suffer  for  conscience'  sake,  he  presented  a  brief  summary 
of  their  views,  which  in  the  "  111  News  "  he  has  developed 
at  some  length:  "  I  testify  that  no  servant  of  Christ  Jesus 
hath  any  liberty,  much  less  authority,  from  his  Lord,  to 
smite  his  fellow-servant."  This  he  proves  by  referring  to 
Scripture  passages  in  which  brotherly  love,  meekness,  low- 
liness, etc.,  are  inculcated.  "  But  to  smite  is  an  argument 
of  a  domineering,  proud,  and  lofty  spirit,  which  is  far  from 
a  Spirit  that  is  meek  and  lowly."  He  further  refers  to 
the  injunction  when  smitten  to  turn  the  other  cheek.  "This 
Lord,  being  also  that  Prince  of  Peace,  doth  so  far  dislike 
such  practices  as  these  among  any  servants  of  his  .  .  . 
that  he  hath  absolutely  and  expressly  declared  that  he  by 
no  means  will  have  a  striker  to  supply  the  office  of  an 
elder  or  steward  therein,  no,  nor  one  that  is  of  a  lordly  or 
domineering  spirit,  nor  yet  one  that  is  froward  and  will  be 
soon  angry."  He  further  testified,  on  the  occasion  re- 
ferred to,  that  no  servant  of  Christ  has  liberty  or  author- 
ity, "  with  outward  force  or  arm  of  flesh,  to  constrain  or 
restrain  another's  conscience,  nor  yet  his  outward  man  for 
conscience'  sake,  or  worship  of  his  God,  etc."  He  claims 
that  "  if  any  servant  of  Christ  Jesus  .  .  .  have  any  such 
liberty  or  authority  from  his  Lord  so  to  do,  then  he  is 
able  to  shew  it  .  .  .  either  out  of  the  words  of  the  Lord 
himself,  or  out  of  those  that  were  spoken  or  writ  by  the 
Apostles.  .  .  .  And  indeed  for  a  man  to  act  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  and  not  to  have  a  word  or  warrant  from  him, 
is  high  presumption."  He  shows  that  there  is  no  such 
word  and  that  such  conduct  is  a  direct  usurpation  of  the 
authority  of  Christ.      Moreover,  it  is  in  sheer  contradiction 


Chap,  iii.]     CLARKE  AS  COUNSELOR  AND  AGENT.  103 

of  our  Lord's  command  :  "  Do  to  others  as  ye  would  that 
others  should  do  unto  you."  He  holds  that  "  to  persecute, 
prosecute,  or  enforce  others"  is  contradictory  to  Christ's 
representation  of  believers  as  lambs  in  the  midst  of  wolves. 
"  But  the  Lord  hath  reserved  this  great  work  of  ordering 
the  understanding  and  conscience,  which  is  the  spirit  of 
man,  by  way  of  constraint  or  restraint;  and  also  the  out- 
ward man,  with  respect  to  the  worship  of  God,  .  .  .  in  his 
own  hand,  and  in  the  hand  of  his  Spirit,  and  hath  intended 
to  manage  it  as  a  part  of  his  Kingdom,  by  his  own  Spirit, 
and  by  another  manner  of  ministry  than  that  which  is  put 
forth  in  the  kingdoms  of  men."  This  proposition  he 
proves  by  abundant  citations  of  Scripture.  Again:  "That 
which  presupposeth  one  man  to  ha\e  dominion  over  an- 
other man's  conscience  "  he  speaks  of  as  "  but  a  forcing  of 
servants  and  worshipers  upon  the  Lord,  at  the  least,  which 
he  seeks  not  for,  and  is  a  ready  way  to  make  men  dissem- 
blers and  hypocrites  before  God  and  man,  which  wise  men 
abhor;  and  to  put  men  upon  the  profaning  the  name  of 
the  Lord,  that  can  no  servant  of  Christ  Jesus  have  any 
liberty,  much  less  authority,  from  his  Lord  to  do."  He 
shows  further  that  Christ  Jesus  "sharply  reproved  and 
checked  his  servants  when  he  hath  espied  such  a  spirit  as 
this  breaking  forth  in  them."  Again:  "That  which  of 
itself  is  inconsistent  with  the  civil  peace,  libert}',  prosperity, 
and  safety  of  a  place,  commonwealth,  or  nation,  no  servant 
of  Christ  can  have  liberty,  much  less  authority,  from  his 
Lord,  to  do.  But  this  outward  forcing  of  men  in  matters 
of  conscience  toward  God  to  believe  as  others  believe,  and 
to  practice  and  worship  as  others  do,  cannot  stand  with  the 
peace,  liberty,  prosperity,  and  safety  of  a  place,  common- 
wealth, or  nation.  Therefore,"  etc.  He  maintains  that 
there  can  be  no  peace  in  a  commonwealth  "  so  long  as 
there  is  an  outward  force  and  power  to  be  had  to  main- 


I04  77/£   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

lain  and  uphold  the  carnal  interests  and  advantages  of 
some  upon  religious  accounts,  and  so  prosecute  others 
who  for  conscience'  sake  toward  God  dare  not,  yea,  cannot, 
conform  to  their  way.  What  hopes  are  thereby  begotten 
and  nourished  in  some?  what  jealousies,  suspicions,  and 
fears  in  others?  what  revengeful  desires  in  most?  yea,  what 
plottings  and  contrivings  in  all?  and  as  a  fruit  and  effect 
hereof,  what  riding?  running?  troublesome  and  tumultuous 
assemblings  together,  and  sidings?  yea,  and  outrageous 
murderings  and  bloodsheddings  are  hereby  produced  in  a 
nation,  to  gain  that  power  and  sword  to  their  party,  either 
to  crush,  suppress,  or  cause  the  other  to  conform,  or  at 
the  least  and  best  to  save  themselves  from  being  crushed, 
suppressed,  or  forced  to  conformity?  "  He  insists  that  by 
granting  liberty  of  conscience  "  shall  all  parties  be  deeply 
obliged,  to  the  utmost  of  their  lives  and  estates,  to  bear 
up  that  power,  without  which  they  cannot  expect  to  enjoj- 
peace,  libert3%  and  safety  themselves." 

From  the  beginning  Clarke  was  the  trusted  counselor 
of  the  Rhode  Island  colonists.  While  he  seems  to  have 
shrunk  from  occupying  the  highest  position  at  home,  his 
influence  is  manifest  in  every  important  measure,  and 
whenever  it  became  necessary  to  send  a  representative  to 
England  in  the  interests  of  colonial  rights  he  was  the 
chosen  representative  of  the  people.  When  William  Cod- 
dington  had  without  the  approval  of  a  majority  of  the 
citizens  of  the  island  secured  in  England  a  grant  of  the 
territory  in  his  own  right,  Clarke  was  sent  to  England  by 
Newport  and  Portsmouth  to  procure  the  annulling  of  the 
charter.  In  this  undertaking  he  had  the  cooperation  of 
Roger  Williams,  who  acted  on  behalf  of  Providence  and 
Warwick.  Williams  returned  soon  after  the  business  had 
been  accomplished,  but  for  twelve  years  Clarke  remained 
in  England  as  the  representative  of  the  colonists  and  the 


Chap,  hi.]  THE   XRW  CHARTER    OE  KMS.  105 

guardian  of  their  rights.  It  was  during  this  visit  to  Eng- 
land that  he  pubHshed  "  111  News  from  New  England,"  a 
work  that  did  more  than  any  other  publication  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  world  to  the  intolerance  of  New  England 
Puritanism  and  the  iniquity  of  such  intolerance.  In  Eng- 
land he  was  closely  associated  with  many  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  Cromwellian  age,  notably  with  John  Milton, 
the  Latin  secretary,  a  radical  in  politics  and  religion. 

Just  how  his  time  was  employed  during  this  long  resi- 
dence in  the  mother-land  we  are  not  informed;  but  it  is 
probable  that  he  was  at  the  same  time  deepening  the  foun- 
dations of  his  theological,  civic,  and  medical  knowledge,  and 
seeking  to  advance  the  cause  of  Christ  in  such  ways  as  were 
open  to  him.  The  following  contemporary  notice,  being  a 
communication  from  the  town  of  Warwick  to  the  colonial 
council,  is  of  interest:  "We  know  that  Mr.  Clarke  did 
publicly  exercise  his  ministry  in  the  Word  of  God  in  Lon- 
don, as  his  letters  have  made  report,  as  that  being  a  chief 
place  for  his  profit  and  preferment,  which,  we  doubt  not, 
brought  him  in  good  means  for  his  maintenance  ;  as  also 
he  was  much  about  modelizing  of  matters  concerning  the 
aiTairs  of  England,  as  his  letters  have  declared,  in  which, 
no  doubt,  he  was  encouraged  by  men  of  no  small  estates, 
who,  in  all  likehhood,  did  communicate  liberally  for  such 
of  his  labors  and  studies."  The  stress  laid  upon  his  possi- 
ble emoluments  was  due  to  the  somewhat  niggardly  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  town  to  be  released  from  its  proportion 
of  the  allowance  made  to  Clarke  for  his  services.  Much  of 
his  time  was  no  doubt  given  to  the  affairs  of  the  colony, 
and  after  the  accession  of  Charles  II.  he  succeeded  in  se- 
curing a  charter  for  "  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plan- 
tations," in  1663.  The  charter  of  1644,  ratified  in  1647, 
had  never  been  satisfactory  on  account  of  the  indefinite- 
ness   of   its   provisions.       Disputes  as   to   boundaries   had 


I06  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

arisen  which  could  scarcely  be  settled  by  other  than  British 
authority.  Moreover,  with  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts 
the  acts  of  the  revolutionary  period  had  been  nullified. 
This  charter,  though  given  by  a  king  of  despotic  tenden- 
cies, who  was  at  that  very  time  bitterly  persecuting  dis- 
senters, is  one  of  the  most  remarkable,  in  its  provisions  for 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  ever  issued  by  an  English  sover- 
eign. It  makes  suitable  acknowledgment  of  the  Indian 
titles  to  the  land ;  it  declares  "  that  no  person  within  the 
said  colony,  at  any  time  hereafter,  shall  be  anywise  mo- 
lested, punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in  question  for  any 
difference  in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  which  do  not 
actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  our  said  colony ;  but 
that  all  and  every  person  and  persons  may,  from  time  to 
time,  and  at  all  times  hereafter,  freely  and  fully  have  and 
enjoy  his  and  their  own  judgments  and  consciences  in 
matters  of  religious  concernments ;  .  .  .  they  behaving 
themselves  peaceably  and  quietly,  and  not  using  this  lib- 
erty to  licentiousness  and  profaneness,  nor  to  the  civil  in- 
jury or  outward  disturbance  of  others."  The  provisions  of 
the  earlier  charter  for  government  by  a  majority  of  the  free- 
men of  the  colony  are  substantially  confirmed  in  the  new. 
Rhode  Islanci,  through  Clarke's  diplomacy,  secured  the 
recognition  of  claims  to  territory  disputed  by  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts.  Clarke  was  bitterly  opposed  in  his 
efforts  to  secure  the  charter  by  the  representatives  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and  these  colonies  were 
greatly  chagrined  by  his  success.  It  was  natural  that  they 
should  insinuate  that  this  Baptist  statesman,  who  had  so 
ruthlessly  exposed  the  intolerance  of  the  Massachusetts 
authorities,  had  secured  the  charter  by  improper  means. 
But  the  documentary  history  of  the  time  fully  vindicates 
Clarke,  while  it  reflects  gravely  upon  the  methods  of  his 
traducers.      (Arnold,  i.,  287  scq) 


Chap,  hi.]  CLARKE  AS  A    BAPTIST.  107 

There  was  universal  rejoicing  throughout  Rhode  Island 
and  Providence  Plantations  that  the  aspirations  of  the 
colonists  for  liberty  and  for  their  rigiits  in  relation  to  the 
other  colonies  had  been  so  amply  secured  by  their  honored 
and  beloved  agent.  The  bearer  of  the  royally  sealed  doc- 
ument was  handsomely  rewarded  for  his  fidelity.  It  was 
voted  "  that  Mr.  John  Clarke,  the  Colony's  agent  in  Eng- 
land, be  saved  harmless  in  his  estate ;  and  to  that  end  that 
all  his  disbursements  going  to  England,  and  all  his  ex- 
penses and  engagements  there  already  laid  out,  ...  as 
also  .  .  .  expenses  and  engagements  he  shall  be  necessi- 
tated yet  further  to  disburse,  .  .  .  shall  all  be  repaid, 
paid,  and  discharged  by  this  Colony.  .  .  .  That  in  con- 
sideration of  .  .  .  his  great  pains,  labor,  and  travail  with 
much  faithfulness  exercised  for  above  twelve  years  in  be- 
half of  this  Colony,  in  England,  the  thanks  of  the  Colony 
be  sent  unto  him  by  the  Governor  and  Deputy  Governor ; 
and  for  a  gratuity  unto  him,  the  Assembly  engage  that 
the  Colony  shall  pay  unto  the  said  John  Clarke,  .  .  .  over 
and  besides  what  is  above  engaged,  the  sum  ...  of  one 
hundred  pound  sterling."  This  was  undoubtedly  the 
crowning  achievement  of  Clarke's  civil  career.  The 
charter  remained  in  force  until  1843.  From  the  time  of 
its  adoption  Rhode  Island  was  practically  a  free,  demo- 
cratic state,  with  the  amplest  provision  for  liberty  of  con- 
science. 

The  later  public  services  of  John  Clarke  must  be  passed 
over.  His  life  was  one  of  singular  disinterestedness  and 
self-devotion.  Few  men  have  been  so  prominently  en- 
gaged in  public  affairs  without  arousing  antagonisms 
among  those  with  whom  they  have  been  associated.  But 
so  well  balanced  was  his  mind,  so  just  were  his  judgments, 
so  thorough  was  his  understanding  of  human  nature  and 
of  the  problems  of  his  time,  so  evident  was  it  to  all  that  he 


Io8  THE-    BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

was  seeking  no  private  ends  at  tlie  expense  of  others,  that 
he  seems  to  have  been  universally  honored,  trusted,  and 
beloved.  If  enemies  he  had  they  were  the  enemies  of 
his  religion  and  of  his  colony. 

But  the  aspect  of  his  life  which  justifies  his  introduction 
into  the  present  work  has  as  yet  been  barely  touched 
upon.  John  Clarke  was  a  Baptist  of  the  completest  and 
purest  type,  the  most  important  American  Baptist  of  the 
century  in  which  he  lived.  When  or  under  what  circum- 
stances he  adopted  Baptist  views  seems  not  to  have  been 
recorded.  There  is  some  probability  in  favor  of  the  sup- 
position that  he  came  to  America  a  Baptist.  The  fact 
that  we  have  no  intimation  of  any  change  in  his  views,  or 
of  his  baptism  in  New  England,  is  so  far  fa\'orable  to  this 
supposition.  He  may  have  had  his  attention  called  to  the 
matter  by  Roger  Williams,  who,  about  a  year  after  Clarke's 
first  visit  to  Providence,  introduced  beh'evers'  baptism  and 
organized  a  Baptist  church.  He  may  have  been  bap- 
tized by  Mark  Lukar,  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  English 
Particular  Baptists,  who  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Newport  church,  and  who  for  many  years 
nobly  served  the  church  as  a  ruling  elder.  At  any  rate 
this  connecting-link  between  the  first  Particular  Baptist 
church  of  England  and  the  second  of  America,  hitherto 
overlooked,  is  a  matter  of  no  small  interest.  If  Robert 
Lenthall,  who  was  driven  from  Weymouth,  Mass.,  for 
erroneous  views  in  1638,  and  who  accepted  citizenship  at 
Newport  in  1640,  was  a  Baptist,  Clarke  may  have  been 
influenced  by  him  ;  but  the  account  we  have  of  Lenthall's 
view\s  leaves  us  in  doubt  as  to  his  precise  position. 

Clarke  began  his  ministry  on  the  island  soon  after  his 
arrival.  Winthrop  designates  him,  in  1638,  as  "a  physi- 
cian and  preacher  to  those  of  the  island."  The  colonists 
were  not  long  in  building  a  meeting-house  at  the  common 


Chap.  III.]  CLARK  AS  A   BAPTIST.  1 09 

expense,  and  a  church  was  soon  organized,  on  what  basis 
we  are  not  informed.  A  number  of  those  who  had  been 
members  of  the  Boston  church,  and  had  incurred  censure 
on  account  of  their  sympathy  with  Mrs,  Hutchinson  and 
her  views,  were  members  of  this  church. 

By  1640-41  rehgious  dissension  had  become  acute.  A 
number  of  the  islanders  carried  their  antinomian  views  to 
their  extreme  consequences,  and,  if  correctly  represented, 
sought  to  promulgate  a  licentious  pantheism.  Easton, 
Codciington,  and  Coggeshall  represented  the  antinomian 
position  and  were  opposed  by  Clarke,  Lenthall,  Harding, 
and  others.  "  Professed  Anabaptists,"  according  to  Win- 
throp,  appeared  on  the  island  as  early  as  1641.  He  is  prob- 
ably in  error  in  representing  the  Anabaptists  of  the  island  as 
denying  magistracy,  the  bearing  of  arms,  and  the  existence 
of  true  churches,  and  maintaining  the  necessity  of  special 
apostolic  intervention  in  order  to  the  constitution  of  such. 
It  seems  to  ha\-e  been  some  of  the  antinomians  that  held 
to  these  views.  As  like  \iews  were  currently  attributed 
to  the  Anabaptists  of  the  sixteenth  centur\-,  and  as  men 
of  Winthrop's  stamp  were  looking  for  the  development  of 
such  views  among  contemporary  Baptists,  it  was  natural 
that  when  he  learned  that  there  were  Baptists  on  the 
island,  and  that  there  were  ad\ocates  of  these  views  of 
magistracy,  warfare,  and  church  constitution,  he  should 
have  taken  it  for  granted  that  the  two  sets  of  views  be- 
longed to  the  same  party.  It  is  probable  that  the  anti- 
pedobaptists,  under  Clarke's  leadership,  began  to  hold 
.separate  meetings  in  1641.  In  a  MS.  copy  of  Lechford's 
"Plain  Dealing"  (written  probably  in  1641)  it  is  stated 
that  "  at  the  island  called  Aquedny  are  about  one  hun- 
dred families.  There  is  a  church  where  one  Master  Clarke 
is  Pastor.  .  .  .  The  place  where  the  church  is  is  called 
Newport."      In   the  printed  work   (1642)   the   number  of 


I  I  o  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

inhabitants  is  given  as  two  hundred,  and  after  "  Newport  " 
is  added,  "  but  the  church,  I  hear,  is  now  dissolved;  as  also 
divers  churches  in  the  country  have  been  broken  up  and 
dissolved  througli  dissension."  It  is  evident  that  religious 
affairs  on  the  island  were  in  great  confusion  about  1641- 
42,  and  it  is  probable  that  at  this  time  a  more  general 
congregation  to  which  Clarke  ministered  was  broken  up, 
and  that  the  antipedobaptist  members  now  began  a  sepa- 
rate meeting.  An  early  tradition,  put  on  record  by  John 
Comer  in  the  next  century,  places  the  organization  of  the 
church  in  the  year  1644.  It  is  probable  that  the  Baptist 
meeting,  begun  in  1641  or  1642,  assumed  more  completely 
the  character  of  a  church  in  1644. 

Samuel  Hubbard,  a  well-educated  and  deeply  spiritual 
man,  having  lived  for  a  number  of  years  in  Connecticut, 
where  he  embraced  Baptist  views,  removed  to  Newport 
and  was  received  by  baptism,  along  with  his  wife,  into  the 
Newport  church  in  November,  1648.  He  thus  describes 
their  experience  at  Fairfield,  Conn.  :  "  God  ha\'ing  en- 
lightened both,  but  mostly  my  wife,  into  his  holy  ordi- 
nance of  baptizing  only  visible  believers,  and  being  zealous 
for  it,  she  was  mostly  struck  at,  and  answered  twice  pub- 
licly, where  I  was  also  said  to  be  as  bad  as  she,  and  threat- 
ened with  imprisonment  to  Hartford  gaol,  if  we  did  not 
renounce  it  or  remove.  That  Scripture  came  into  our 
minds,  '  If  they  persecute  you  in  one  place,  flee  to  an- 
other.' "  He  conducted  an  extensive  correspondence, 
private  and  on  behalf  of  the  church,  and  to  his  letters  we 
are  indebted  for  much  valuable  information  with  reference 
to  the  religious  history  of  the  time.  He  was  a  lifelong 
friend  of  Roger  Williams  and  frequently  exchanged  views 
with  him  in  correspondence.  In  1665  Stephen  Mumford, 
an  English  Seventh-Day  Baptist,  united  with  the  church 
and  propagated  his  views  '>o  industriously  that  Hubbard, 


Chap,  hi.]  HOLMES,  LUKAK,  AXD    ll'EEDEX.  i  i  i 

Hiscox,  and  others  were  soon  zealous  Sabbatarians.  At 
last  they  became  so  convinced  of  the  sinfulness  of  the 
neglect  of  the  Sabbath  (which  they  regarded  as  an  ordi- 
nance of  God,  binding  for  all  time  and  transferred  by  no 
Scriptural  warrant  to  the  first  day),  and  by  consequence  so 
censorious  and  intolerant  of  the  common  practice,  that  in 
167 1  a  Seventh-Day  Baptist  church  was  formed  at  Newport. 
Two  of  Clarke's  brothers,  Thomas  and  Joseph,  appear 
among  the  early  members  of  the  Newport  church.  The 
latter  became  somewhat  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  the 
colony.  The  first  deacon  appears  to  have  been  William 
Weeden,  and  Mark  Lukar  was  designated  a  "  ruling  elder." 
The  Baptist  cause  at  Seekonk,  Mass.,  led  by  Obadiah 
Holmes,  was  fostered  by  Clarke  and  his  brethren,  who  vis- 
ited the  community  for  preaching  and  the  administration 
of  baptism.  After  the  meeting  had  been  broken  up  by 
the  authorities  most  of  the  members  removed  to  Newport, 
where  they  formed  a  valuable  accession  to  the  church. 
The  evangelistic  visit  of  Clarke,  Holmes,  and  Crandall  to 
Lynn,  Mass.,  to  minister  to  an  aged  and  infirm  Baptist, 
William  Witter  by  name,  and  possibly  to  assist  others  who 
were  inclined  to  the  Baptist  way,  with  the  cruel  persecu- 
tion that  they  suffered  there,  may  be  reserved  for  the  next 
chapter.  This  occurred  in  the  summer  of  165  i.  Clarke 
was  soon  afterward  sent  to  England  as  agent  of  the  col- 
ony. During  his  prolonged  absence  the  work  was  car- 
ried on  by  Obadiah  Holmes  and  Joseph  Torrey,  the  latter 
as  well  as  the  former  one  of  the  Seekonk  company.  Shortly 
after  Clarke's  departure  controversy  arose  with  reference  to 
the  laying  on  of  hands.  Soon  after  the  division  in  Provi- 
dence on  the  ground  of  this  ceremony,  in  1652,  William 
Vaughan,  a  member  of  the  Newport  church,  who  had 
adopted  Six  Principle  views,  visited  Providence  to  submit 
to  the  laying  on  of  hands  and  to  arrange  for  a  Six  Princi- 


I  12 


THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  i. 


pie  propaganda  in  Newport.  He  returned  accompanied 
by  Wickenden  and  Dexter.  The  time  did  not  prove  ripe 
for  the  estabhshment  of  a  new  congregation,  but  from  thi.s 
time  onward  an  active  and  aggressive  minority  favored 
insistence  on  the  six  principles,  and  in  1656  a  new  church 
was  formed  on  this  basis. 

After  his  return  in  1664  Clarke  resumed  the  leadership 
of  the  congregation  and  was  ably  assisted  by  Holmes,  Tor- 
rey,  Lukar,  and  Weeden,  who  for  so  many  years  had  been 
among  the  chief  burden-bearers  in  the  church.  Next  to 
Clarke,  Torrey  was  the  most  prominent  man  among  the 
Baptists  of  the  island  in  civil  affairs,  having  been  at  one 
time  attorney-general  and  for  years  general  recorder.  The 
church  was  sadly  afflicted  in  1676  by  the  death  of  four  of 
its  standard-bearers.  Torrey  died  early  in  the  year,  and 
was  foUow^ed  in  April  by  Clarke,  in  October  by  Weeden, 
and  in  December  by  Lukar.  The  church  had  already  suf- 
fered two  schisms,  and  the  Quaker  agitation  had  hindered 
its  progress.  When  these  four  noted  men  had  been  re- 
moved by  death,  those  who  remained  may  well  have  felt 
discouraged. 

Obadiah  Holmes,  already  a  septuagenarian  (he  was  born 
about  1606),  succeeded  to  the  pastorate  and  retained  it  till 
his  death  in  1682.  He  was  well  educated,  and  had  for 
many  years,  at  great  personal  cost,  labored  in  the  Bap- 
tist cause.  The  narrative  of  his  sufferings  in  Massachu- 
setts in  1 65  I  will  be  found  in  the  next  chapter.  Among 
the  more  noted  members  of  the  church  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  century  was  John  Cooke,  who  had  been  a  Con- 
o-reffational  minister  in  the  Plvmouth  colony,  and  who  was 
converted  to  Baptist  views  before  1680  by  reading  the 
"  Narrative  "  of  Elder  Russell,  of  the  Boston  church.  As 
a  boy  he  was  among  the  passengers  of  the  "  Mayflower  " 
and  was  still  living  in  1694.      Another  prominent  member 


CnAi'.  111.]  WILLIAM  PECKHAM.  II3 

was  Philip  Edes,  who,  according  to  Samuel  Hubbard,  was 
"  one  in  office  in  Oliver's  [Cromwell's]  house,  was  for  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  a  merchant,  a  precious  man,  of  a  holy 
life  and  conversation,  beloved  of  all  sorts  of  men,  his  death 
much  bewailed  by  all."  As  has  already  been  made  evi- 
dent, the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Newport  was  strictly  Cal- 
vinistic  in  doctrine.  A  correspondence  with  the  Particular 
Baptists  of  England  was  kept  up,  and  the  relations  of  the 
church  with  the  Swansea  and  Boston  churches  were  most 
intimate. 

About  1687  the  church  secured  the  services  of  a  young 
Englishman,  Richard  Dingley  by  name,  who  had  spent 
some  time  in  Boston,  and  who  came  to  Newport  recom- 
mended by  Boston  Baptists.  Thomas  Skinner,  deacon  of 
the  Boston  church,  assisted  at  his  ordination.  After  about 
seven  years  of  service  he  removed  to  South  Carolina.  For 
a  number  of  years  the  church  was  without  a  regular  pastor 
and  its  vital  forces  seem  to  have  run  \'ery  \o\\\  William 
Peckham,  a  member  of  the  church,  became  pastor  in  171 1. 
In  I  718  an  Englishman  named  Daniel  White  was  appointed 
assistant  pastor,  and  by  his  rashness  in  administering  the 
ordinances,  though  himself  unordained,  and  his  disposition 
to  disregard  the  rights  of  the  less  aggressive  and  prob- 
ably less  intelligent  pastor,  the  church  was  thrown  into 
confusion.  The  result  was  that  White  and  his  friends 
withdrew  and  formed  a  separate  congregation  in  1724. 
The  new  church  did  not  prosper,  and  when  White  aban- 
doned the  enterprise  in  1728  it  is  said  that  "  the  only  sur- 
viving member  that  he  left  behind  him  was  a  solitary 
woman." 

Unwisely,  as  it  would  seem,  Peckham,  who  must  have 
been  from  age  or  other  causes  utterly  unfitted  for  the 
leadership  of  the  church,  continued  to  sustain  the  relation 
of  elder  or  head  pastor  until  his  death  in  1732. 


I  I  4  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

The  pastorate  of  John  Comer  was  in  many  respects  a  suc- 
cessful one,  but  it  ended  unpleasantly.  Comer  came  to 
the  church  (1725)  as  a  young  man  of  twenty-one,  yet  with 
a  maturity  far  beyond  his  years.  A  native  of  Boston,  he 
had  had  his  preparatory  training  at  Cambridge  and  had 
studied  at  Yale  College.  He  had  a  profound  experience 
of  divine  grace  when  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  and 
a  year  afterward  "  was  received  into  full  communion  with 
the  [Congregational]  church  in  Cambridge."  He  had 
probably  already  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the  gospel 
ministry.  A  short  time  afterward  a  "  near  companion  " 
of  his  "embraced  the  principle  of  believers'  baptism  .  .  . 
and  was  baptized  by  Mr.  E.  Callender,  in  Boston."  On  re- 
monstrating with  his  friend  for  abandoning  what  he  re- 
garded as  a  divine  institution.  Comer  was  induced  to  read 
Joseph  Stennett's  treatise  on  baptism.  It  was  his  expec- 
tation that  he  would  find  many  flaws  in  it  and  that  by 
pointing  these  out  he  would  be  able  to  win  his  friend  from 
the  error  of  his  way.  He  "  resolved  to  turn  to  every 
Scripture  quoted,  and  not  to  take  any  one  without."  In 
so  doing  he  found  that  he  "  had  never  duly  considered 
the  viii.  of  the  Acts,  the  iii.  of  Matthew,  and  the  vi.  of 
Romans,  and  such  like  places.  Hereupon  I  got  (though 
privately)  books  on  the  other  side  of  the  controversy  and 
found  them,  if  weighed  in  the  balance,  wanting."  The 
result  was  a  great  inner  conflict.  He  was  convinced  that 
his  baptism  was  defective,  and  yet  he  shrank  from  sever- 
ing his  otherwise  happy  relations  with  the  Congregatlon- 
alists.  It  was  not  until  he  had  pursued  his  studies  at  Yale 
that  he  resolved  to  follow  the  path  of  duty  in  this  matter. 
In  January,  1725,  he  was  baptized  by  Elisha  Callender, 
and  shortly  afterward  entered  the  Baptist  ministry.  He 
soon  had  his  choice  between  the  pastorate  of  the  Swansea 
and  that  of  the  Newport  church.      Through   much  prayer 


Chap,  hi.]   COMER  ACCEPTS  hMPOSITIOX  OF  IIAXDS.         \  15 

and  the  helpful  counsel  of  Callender  he  decided  in  favor 
of  Newport.  In  March,  1726,  he  was  ordained  to  the 
ministry  by  Elder  Peckham  and  Deacon  Maxwell.  The 
church  had  dwindled  down  to  a  membership  of  eighteen — 
ten  men  and  eight  women.  Comer  kept  a  minute  diary, 
and  we  are  indebted  to  him  for  much  interesting  informa- 
tion about  the  Baptists  of  his  time.  His  researches  into 
the  history  of  the  earlier  time  have  likewise  been  of  great 
use  to  later  investigators.  He  informs  us  that  there  were 
in  Newport  at  this  time'seven  congregations :  "  Two  Bap- 
tist churches,  one  under  hands,  Mr.  James  Clarke  and  Mr. 
Daniel  Wightman,  Pastors.  My  flock.  .  .  .  One  Seventh- 
Day  church,  Mr.  Joseph  Crandall,  Pastor.  One  congre- 
gation under  the  care  of  Mr.  Daniel  White "  (already 
mentioned),  and  congregations  of  Congregationahsts,  Epis- 
copalians, and  Quakers,  the  last  "  very  large."  The  anti- 
nomians  of  the  early  time  had  for  the  most  part  become 
Quakers. 

The  early  stages  of  Comer's  ministry  were  highly  pros- 
perous. He  surpassed  most  of  his  contemporaries  in  evan- 
gelistic zeal  and  gifts.  During  the  first  year  twenty-four 
were  added  to  the  church.  The  church  contributed  for 
the  support  of  the  pastor  during  the  first  year  more  than 
i^85,  during  the  second  year  more  than  ^^93,  while  in  the 
third  year  the  pastor's  income  had  fallen  to  ^^38.  The 
support  given  was  generous  for  the  time,  and  the  falling 
off  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  pastor  had  adopted  the 
doctrine  of  the  laying  on  of  hands.  Congregational  sing- 
ing, repudiated  by  many  Baptist  churches  of  the  time, 
especially  those  of  the  Arminian  persuasion,  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Newport  church  through  Comer's  influ- 
ence. Though  young  in  years  and  in  the  pastoral  office, 
Comer's  reputation  soon  became  so  widespread  that  he 
was  often  applied  to  for  counsel  even  from  remote  parts 


IIO  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

of  the  country.      His  evangelistic  zeal  led  him  to  extend 
his  labors  far  beyond  Newport  and  Rhode  Island. 

The  adoption  of  the  doctrine  of  the  laying  on  of  hands 
as  an  obligatory  ordinance  invoh'ed  serious  embarrassment 
for  the  pastor  and  the  church.  The  chief  difficulty  of  the 
pastor  lay  in  the  fact  that  while  he  sympathized  with  the 
Six  Principle  churches  in  this  particular  doctrine  he  was 
strongly  opposed  to  their  Arminianism.  Moreover,  he  had 
built  a  needlessly  expensive  house  and  had  become  heav- 
ily involved  in  debt.  The  church- could  not,  of  course,  be 
expected  to  sit  patiently  under  the  preaching  of  doctrine 
that  they  believed  to  be  erroneous.  On  January  9th  he  re- 
cords :  "  I  passed  under  hands  by  Mr.  Daniel  Wightman, 
and  offered  for  transient  communion  until  Spring,  or  till  I 
saw  how  God  in  his  Holy  Providence  might  dispose  of 
me." 

For  more  than  two  years  he  was  without  a  settled 
charge,  though  for  most  of  the  time  he  preached  once 
each  Lord's  Day  for  the  Six  Principle  church  at  Newport. 
Here  also  his  ministry  was  fruitful ;  for  forty  were  added 
to  the  church  during  one  year,  the  largest  addition  the 
church  had  ever  had  in  any  year  of  its  history.  At  the 
close  of  his  engagement  it  numbered  150  and  was  by  far 
the  largest  church  in  the  colony.  His  "  preaching  the 
doctrines  of  grace  "  proved  an  obstacle  to  his  permanent 
settlement  there.  After  a  tour  of  the  churches  of  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  where  the  Particular  Baptist 
churches  practiced  the  laying  on  of  hands,  he  assisted  in 
organizing  a  church  on  a  like  basis  in  Rehoboth,  Mass. 
(January,  1732),  where  he  labored  happily  and  successfully 
till  his  death  (May  23,  1734). 

Comer  gives  us  an  account  of  a  meeting  at  Newport 
(June  21,1  729)  of  the  "Yearly  Association"  of  the  General 
(Six  Principle)  Baptists.      He  speaks  of  it  as  "  the   largest 


CiiAi\  m.]  SIX  PRINCIPLE   ASSOCFATION.  11/ 

Convention  that  ever. hath  been,"  thus  intimating  that  this 
was  far  from  being  its  first  meeting.  Besides  the  New- 
port and  Providence  churches,  the  churches  of  New  York, 
Groton,  Conn.,  Dartmouth,  R.  I.,  New  London,  Conn.,  and 
South  Kingston,  R.  I.,  were  represented.  There  were 
thirty-two  delegates  present — eight  ministers,  three  dea- 
cons, and  twenty-one  brethren.  "  There  are  of  churches 
in  communion  thirteen  distinct  bodies.  In  Providence, 
besides  those  mentioned,  there  are  two  under  the  care  of 
Mr.  Peter  Place  [and]  Mr.  Samuel  Fisk.  In  the  town  of 
Swanzey  one  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Joseph  Maxson.  In  the 
town  of  Warwick  one  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Manasseh  Mar- 
tin. In  North  Kingston  one  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Richard 
Sweet.  'Tis  supposed  there  were  250  communicants  and 
1000  auditors.  Each  of  these  held  the  Doctrine  of  Gen- 
eral Redemption.  There  are  three  other  churches  that 
hold  the  Doctrine  of  Free  Grace.  One  at  Newport,  .  .  . 
formerly  my  flock.  One  at  Swanzey  under  the  care  of 
Mr.  Ephraim  Wheaton.  One  at  Boston  under  the  care 
of  Mr.  Elisha  Callender.  There  are  two  churches  in  the 
observation  of  the  Seventh  Day.  One  at  Westerly  under 
the  care  of  Mr.  Joseph  Maxson.  One  at  Newport  under 
the  care  of  Mr.  Joseph   Crandal." 

John  Callender,  a  nephew  of  Elisha  Callender,  and  like 
him  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of 
the  First  Church,  Newport,  in  1730,  a  youth  of  twenty- 
one.  He  continued  in  this  relation  till  his  death  in  1748. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  centennial  of  the  settlement  of  the 
island  (March,  1738)  Callender  preached  an  historical  ser- 
mon, which  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  attempt  to  collect 
and  arrange  the  materials  relating  to  the  early  history  of 
the  colony.      It  is  still  regarded  as  a  masterpiece. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

BAPTISTS    IN    MASSACHUSETTS   TO    1652.I 

In  reviewing  the  dealings  of  the  Massachusetts  author- 
ities with  Roger  WilHams  we  have  learned  something  of 
their  attitude  toward  aggressive  and  pertinacious  dissent, 
whether  in  civil  or  in  religious  matters.  The  Massachu- 
setts Bay  leaders  were  nonconforming  Puritans,  and  they 
had  secured  their  charter  with  the  full  understanding  that 
they  did  not  repudiate  the  Church  of  England  and  were 
far  removed  from  separatism  of  any  kind.  They  sought 
to  be  regarded  "  as  those  who  esteem  it  our  honor  to  call 
the  Church  of  England,  from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear 
mother;  and  cannot  part  from  our  native  country,  where 
she  specially  resideth,  without  much  sadness  of  heart  and 
many  tears  in  our  eyes ;  ever  acknowledging  that  such 
hope  and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the  common  salva- 
tion we  have  received  in  her  bosom,  and  sucked  it  from 
her  breasts."  Under  Laud's  domineering  in  England  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  a  body  of  avowed  sepa- 
ratists to  secure  a  charter  or  to  get  permission  to  leave  the 
country.  Even  the  Salem  company,  w^hich  represented  a 
more  thoroughgoing  type  of  dissent,  had  thought  it  advis- 
able to  repudiate  separatism,  and  had  refused  passage  on 
their  vessel  to  Ralph  Smith,  who  was  coming  out  as  pastor 
of  the   semi-separatist  followers  of  John  Robinson,  who 

1  Cf.  Backus,  Clarke,  "111  News,"  Winslow,  "Good  News,"  Win- 
tlirop,  Ellis,  Morton,  Mather,  Hutchinson.  Adams,  Felt,  Palfrey. 

118 


Chap.  IV.]  NEW  ENGLAND  PURITANISM.  i  ig 

constituted  the  older  Plymouth  colony.  "  We  will  not 
say,"  they  wrote,  "  as  the  Separatists  were  wont  to  say  at 
their  leaving  of  England,  Farewell,  Babylon!  Farewell, 
Rome !  but  we  will  say.  Farewell,  dear  England !  Fare- 
well, the  Church  of  God  in  England,  and  all  the  Christian 
friends  there !  We  do  not  go  to  New  England  as  Separatists 
from  the  Church  of  England ;  though  we  cannot  but  sepa- 
rate from  the  corruptions  in  it ;  but  we  go  to  practice  the 
positive  part  of  church  reformation,  and  propagate  the 
gospel  in  America."  The  Salem  colony  soon  came  under 
the  influence  of  the  Plymouth  settlement,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  the  pastor  of  the  Salem  church  was  refusing 
the  Lord's  Supper  to  such  leaders  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  company  as  Winthrop,  Dudley,  Johnson,  and  Cod- 
dington,  and  declining  to  baptize  the  child  of  the  last- 
named,  because  they  had  not  yet  become  members  of  any 
particular  "  reformed  church  "  ;  w^hile  he  had  welcomed  to 
communion  a  member  of  an  English  separatist  congrega- 
tion and  had  baptized  his  child. 

The  Massachusetts  Bay  authorities  failed  utterly  to 
recognize  the  practicability  of  tolerating  any  marked  dif- 
ferences of  doctrine  or  practice.  To  allow  companies  of 
believers  to  organize  themselves  for  worship  on  any  other 
basis  than  that  adopted  by  the  party  in  the  majority,  or  to 
allow  individuals  to  propagate  freely  views  opposed  to 
those  of  the  recognized  churches,  could  result  only  in  con- 
fusion and  disaster  as  regards  the  colonies  themselves,  and 
in  such  a  reputation  in  England  as  would  result  in  the 
withdrawal  of  the  charter,  the  sending  out  of  an  unfriendly 
governor,  or  even  the  recall  and  punishment  of  the  colo- 
nists. The  leaders  of  Massachusetts  were  peculiarly  sensi- 
tive about  the  sending  of  adverse  reports  to  England.  In 
fact  they  deprecated  the  reporting  of  the  actual  state  of 
things,   and  they  took   every  precaution    to   prevent   the 


I20  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

settlement  of  such  as  would  be  likely  to  injure  the  repu- 
tation of  the  colonies  by  unfriendly  representations.  As 
early  as  May,  1631,  a  regulation  was  adopted  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court  that  "  for  time  to  come  no  man  shall  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  freedom  of  this  body  poHtic  but  such  as  are 
members  of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the 
same."  This  excluded  Baptists  from  all  civil  privileges. 
The  freeman's  oath,  referred  to  in  the  chapter  on  Roger 
Williams,  was  intended  as  a  means  of  rigorously  excluding 
all  who  should  fall  short  of  loyalty  to  existing  arrange- 
ments. 

The  case  of  Roger  Williams  had  scarcely  been  disposed 
of  when  the  Massachusetts  colonies  were  convulsed  with 
another  religious  controversy  that  was  soon  to  involve  the 
whole  of  New  England.  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  with  her 
husband,  had  been  attracted  to  Boston  from  England  by 
the  person  and  the  teachings  of  John  Cotton,  the  leading- 
Boston  minister,  and  had  arrived  in  September,  1634.  Her 
brother-in-law,  John  Wheelwright,  had  followed  in  May, 
1636.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  one  of  the  most  striking  relig- 
ious characters  of  the  time.  Endowed  with  a  rare  person- 
ality and  with  a  spirit  of  helpfulness  which  gave  her  remark- 
able influence  over  the  women  among  whom  she  moved, 
she  was  able  at  the  same  time  to  win  a  number  of  the  most 
prominent  men  of  New  England  to  her  views.  The  teach- 
ings of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  followers  are  commonly 
designated  antinomianism.  They  laid  great  stress  upon 
the  covenant  of  grace  as  opposed  to  the  covenant  of 
works.  They  regarded  the  current  Puritanism,  with  its 
rigorous  discipline  and  its  scrupulous  attention  to  the  outer 
life,  as  Pharisaic  legalism.  They  insisted  on  the  paramount 
importance  of  the  inner  life.  If  by  a  mystical  union  with 
Christ  our  natures  are  transformed,  the  outer  life  cannot 
fail  to  be  holy  ;  if  the  tree  be  made  good,  the  fruit  will  be 


CuAi'.  IV.]         THE   ANriXOMIAX   CONTROVEKSY.  \2\ 

of  like  character.  They  made  much  of  visions  and  revela- 
tions, and  claimed  to  be  in  so  complete  fellowship  with 
God  as  to  be  responsive  to  e\'ery  prompting  of  his  Spirit. 
It  was  the  old  mysticism  of  the  middle  ages,  modified  no 
doubt,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  teachings  of  Schwenck- 
feldt,  David  Joris,  and  Henry  Nicholas.  The  last-named 
had  secured  a  considerable  following  in  England,  and  his 
writings  had  been  translated  and  widely  circulated.  Fami- 
lism  was  the  name  given  to  his  system,  and  it  represented 
a  pantheistic  type  of  mysticism,  somewhat  like  that  of  the 
medieval  Beghards.  While  the  tendency  of  such  teach- 
ings is  undoubtedly  toward  fanaticism  and  licentiousness,  it 
is  gratifying  to  know  that  the  New  England  antinomians 
compared  favorably  with  their  orthodox  neighbors  in  point 
of  morality  and  well-doing.  John  Cotton,  Williams's  chief 
opponent  and  one  of  the  ablest  theologians  of  the  time, 
was  the  favorite  preacher  of  the  Boston  antinomians  dur- 
ing Mrs.  Hutchinson's  residence  there,  while  Wilson,  his 
colleague,  was  regarded  as  a  mere  legalist.  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  the  governor,  sided  enthusiastically  with  the  anti- 
nomians, while  John  Winthrop,  the  deputy  governor,  took 
a  determined  stand  against  innovation.  The  antinomi- 
ans were  strong  in  Boston  and  its  immediate  vicinity ;  but 
orthodoxy  prevailed  in  the  Massachusetts  colonies  at  large. 
After  much  controversy  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheelwright 
were  banished,  and  various  penalties  and  disabilities,  in- 
cluding disarmament,  were  infiicted  on  those  that  had 
manifested  sympathy  with  their  teachings.  Cotton  him- 
self was  brought  into  a  very  embarrassing  situation  by 
reason  of  the  partiality  of  the  antinomians  for  his  preach- 
ing and  the  sympathy  he  had  expressed  for  some  of  the 
views  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheelwright ;  and  having 
been  censured  for  his  course,  he  felt  obliged  to  apologize 
in  a  way  not  wholly  creditable  to  his  consistency  or  his 


122  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

courage.  The  attitude  of  John  Clarke  toward  the  anti- 
nomians  and  their  persecutors  was  referred  to  in  the  last 
chapter.  Among  the  leaders  of  the  movement  was  Wil- 
liam Coddington,  who  had  occupied  a  high  civil  position 
in  Massachusetts,  who  became  a  chief  opponent  of  Roger 
Williams  in  civil  matters,  who  was  for  a  time  governor  of 
the  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations  colony,  and 
who  became  a  leader  among  the  Quakers. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  settlement  of 
the  antinomians  and  their  friends  in  Rhode  Island.  It 
does  not  concern  us  here  to  narrate  the  disputes  that  arose 
between  the  islanders  and  the  Providence  people. 

Three  considerations  justify  this  brief  mention  of  the 
antinomian  movement:  (i)  the  fact  that  the  controversy 
in  Massachusetts  and  the  rigorous  methods  adopted  in 
dealing  with  the  antinomians  formed  a  prelude  to  the 
series  of  persecuting  measures  that  were  soon  to  be  inau- 
gurated against  the  Baptists;  (2)  the  fact  that  the  Massa- 
chusetts leaders  saw  in  the  mystical  enthusiasm  of  the 
antinomians  a  recurrence  of  phenomena  with  which  they 
had  become  familiar  in  their  reading  of  the  history  of  Ana- 
baptists of  the  Miinster  type;  and  (3)  the  fact  that  in  the 
case  of  some  at  least  sympathy  with  the  teachings  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  and  disgust  with  the  intolerance  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts authorities  formed  a  transition  to  the  Baptist 
position,  while  others,  dominated  by  the  mystical  element 
in  the  teachings  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  found  their  resting- 
place  in  Quakerism,  with  its  emphasizing  of  the  inner 
light  and  its  repudiation  of  external  ordinances. 

The  early  Puritans  of  New  England  (as  of  Old)  knew 
nothing  of  "  Baptists."  The  opponents  of  infant  baptism 
were  in  their  eyes  "Anabaptists."  Their  knowledge  of 
Anabaptists  was  limited  to  the  grossly  exaggerated  ac- 
counts of  the  fanatics  of  the  Miinzer  and  the  Miinster  types. 


Chap.  IV.]  BAPTISTS  MISUXDERSTOOD.  I23 

They  were  quite  willing  to  admit  that  individual  opponents 
of  infant  baptism  might  be  to  all  outward  seeming  quiet, 
peaceable  Christians ;  but  they  were  fully  convinced  that 
the  logic  of  the  antipedobaptist  position  led  inevitably  to 
the  overthrow  of  all  social  order,  with  the  denial  of  magis- 
tracy, oaths,  the  right  of  the  civil  government  to  censure 
religious  offenses,  and,  under  favorable  circumstances,  to 
such  fanatical  outbreaks  as  that  of  Miinster.  One  has 
only  to  read  such  works  as  Featley's  "The  Dippers  Dipt  " 
(1644),  Edwards's  "  Gangrasna "  (1646),  Baillie's  "A 
Dissuasive  from  the  Errors  of  the  Time"  (1645),  Paget's 
"  Heresiography "  (1645),  and  the  earlier  continental 
Latin  works  on  which  these  based  their  statements  with 
reference  to  Anabaptists,  to  realize  the  horror  which  the 
name  "Anabaptist"  awakened  in  the  souls  of  such  men 
as  Cotton,  Hooker,  Winthrop,  and  Endicott.  So  much 
must  be  said  in  order  to  account  for  the  rancorous  hatred 
of  Baptists  by  the  New  England  theocratic  leaders,  their 
lack  of  judicial  fairness  in  dealing  with  radical  dissentients 
of  all  types,  and  their  determination,  even  by  the  inflic- 
tion of  the  crudest  penalties,  if  need  be,  to  exterminate 
heresy. 

Salem,  where  Roger  Williams's  influence  had  been 
brought  most  powerfully  to  bear,  was  in  the  earlier  time 
the  chief  nursery  of  antipedobaptist  sentiments.  During 
the  years  1636-39  those  who  entertained  decided  anti- 
pedobaptist views  had  followed  Williams  to  Providence. 
After  he  had  ceased  to  identify  himself  with  the  Baptists, 
and  especially  after  strife  had  arisen  in  the  Providence 
church,  there  would  be  less  to  attract  them  thither.  New- 
port after  1644  was  a  more  attractive  refuge. 

As  early  as  1638,  at  Weymouth,  Robert  Lenthall,  after- 
ward active  in  Newport,  attracted  attention  by  his  views. 
"  Only  baptism,"  he  held,  "  was  the  door  of  entrance  into 


124  ^-^^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

the  visible  church."  ("  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,"  2d  series,  v., 
275.)  According  to  Hubbard,  "  the  common  sort  of  peo- 
ple did  eagerly  embrace  his  opinions."  He  is  said  to  have 
zealously  striven  "  to  get  such  a  church  on  foot  as  all  bap- 
tized ones  might  communicate  in."  It  is  not  quite  clear, 
however,  that  his  views  were  Baptist. 

The  earliest  assured  case  of  theocratic  censure  on  the 
ground  of  antipedobaptist  error  occurred  December  14, 
1642,  at  the  Salem  Quarterly  Court.  The  record  runs: 
"  The  Lady  Deborah  Moody,  Mrs.  King,  and  the  wife  of 
John  Tilton  were  presented  for  holding  that  the  baptizing 
of  infants  is  no  ordinance  of  God."  Winthrop  reports  the 
matter  more  fully  as  regards  the  principal  offender:  "  The 
Lady  Moody,  a  wise  and  anciently  religious  woman,  being 
taken  with  the  error  of  denying  baptism  to  infants,  was 
dealt  withal  by  many  of  the  elders  and  others,  and  ad- 
monished by  the  cluirch  of  Salem  (whereof  she  was  a 
member);  but  persisting  still,  and  to  avoid  further  trouble, 
etc.,  she  removed  to  the  Dutch,  against  the  advice  of 
all  her  friends.  Many  others  infected  with  anabaptism 
removed  thither  also.  She  was  after  excommunicated." 
Winthrop  does  not  inform  us  what  Lady  Moody's  friends 
advised  her  to  do  under  the  circumstances,  but  as  they 
would  scarcely  have  advised  her  to  face  the  determined 
opposition  of  the  authorities,  which  would  have  resulted  in 
formal  banishment,  with  death  as  the  penalty  of  returning, 
they  must  have  advised  her  to  abandon  her  views  or  at 
least  any  aggressive  assertion  of  them.  We  shall  meet 
Lady  Moody  and  her  followers  hereafter  in  their  Long 
Island  home. 

The  next  case  on  record  seems  to  be  that  of  William 
Witter,  who  had  probably  been  influenced  by  Lady 
Moody,  his  neighbor.  The  date  of  his  arraignment  before 
the  Salem  Court  was  February  28,    1644  (N.  S.).     The 


Chap.  IV.]  WITTER  AXD   TA INFER.  125 

record  reads :  "  For  entertaining  that  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants was  sinful,  [W.  W.]  now  coming-  in  Salem  Court, 
answered  humbly  and  confessed  his  ignorance,  and  his 
willingness  to  see  light,  and  (upon  Mr.  Morris,  our  Elder, 
his  speech)  seemed  to  be  staggered."  He  was  charged 
with  having  called  "  our  ordinance  of  God  a  badge  of  the 
whore."  He  is  sentenced  "  on  some  lecture  day,  the  next 
fifth  day  being  a  public  fast,  to  acknowledge  his  fault,  .  .  . 
and  enjoined  to  be  here  next  Court  at  Salem." 

Witter's  antipedobaptist  zeal,  however,  seems  by  no 
means  to  have  been  abated  by  this  somewhat  moderate 
censure.  A  later  record  runs  :  "  At  the  Court  at  Salem,  held 
the  1 8th  of  the  12th  month,  1645  [February,  1646,  N.  S.], 
WiUiam  Witter,  of  Lynn,  was  presented  by  the  grand  jury 
for  saying  that  they  who  stayed  whiles  a  child  is  baptized 
do  worship  the  devil.  Henry  Collins  and  Nat.  West  deal- 
ingf  with  him  thereabouts,  he  further  said  that  thev  who 
stayed  at  the  baptizing  of  a  child  did  take  the  name  of 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  in  vain,  broke  the  Sab- 
bath, and  confessed  and  justified  the  former  speech."  He 
was  sentenced  "  to  make  public  confession  to  satisfaction 
in  the  open  congregation  at  Lynn,  or  else  to  answer  at  the 
next  General  Court."  Failing  to  comply  with  either  of 
these  conditions,  he  was  afterward  sentenced  to  appear 
"  at  the  next  Court  of  Assistants,  at  Boston,  there  to 
answer,  and  to  be  proceeded  with  according  to  the  merit 
of  his  offense."  The  forbearance  of  the  court  in  the  case 
of  Witter  was  due,  it  may  be  supposed,  not  wholly  to 
their  unwillingness  to  resort  to  harsher  methods  in  case 
of  need,  but  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a  man  of  little  per- 
sonal influence.  If  he  had  been  a  successful  propagator  of 
his  views  banishment  would  certainly  have  been  inflicted. 
On  July  5,  1644,  according  to  Winthrop,  "A  poor  man 
of  Hingham,  one  Painter,   .   .   .   was  now  on  the  sudden 


126  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  I. 

turned  Anabaptist,  and  having  a  child  born,  he  would  not 
suffer  his  wife  to  bring  it  to  the  ordinance  of  baptism. 
Being  presented  for  this,  and  enjoined  to  suffer  the  child 
to  be  baptized,  he  still  refusing,  and  disturbing  the  church, 
he  was  again  brought  to  the  Court,  not  only  for  his  former 
contempt,  but  also  for  saying  that  our  baptism  was  anti- 
christian;  and  in  the  open  Court  he  affirmed  the  same. 
Whereupon,  after  much  patience  and  clear  conviction  of 
his  error,  etc. — because  he  was  very  poor,  so  as  no  other 
but  corporal  punishment  could  be  fastened  upon  him — he 
was  ordered  to  be  whipped,  not  for  his  opinion,  but  for  his 
reproaching  the  Lord's  ordinance,  and  for  his  bold  and 
evil  behavior  both  at  home  and  in  the  Court.  He  endured 
his  punishment  with  much  obstinacy,  and  when  he  was 
loosed  he  said,  boastingly,  that  God  had  marvelously 
assisted  him."  This  is  not  the  first  case  in  which  perse- 
cutors of  Christ's  chosen  ones  have  been  so  swayed  by 
their  prepossessions  as  to  make  light  of  their  sufferings 
and  their  faith,  and  to  attribute  their  heroic  bearing  to 
mere  obstinacy.  It  is  an  old  trick  of  Roman  Catholic 
persecutors.  The  statement  that  Painter  was  punished 
not  for  his  opinion  but  for  his  reproaching  the  Lord's 
ordinance,  etc.,  is  too  transparently  casuistical  to  require 
discussion.  Surely  the  fact  that  antipedobaptist  views, 
unexpressed  and  kept  in  abeyance  even  when  one's  own 
infant  was  involved,  were  tolerated,  is  a  slender  basis  for 
a  claim  of  forbearance. 

Cases  of  pronounced  antipedobaptism  were  now  becom- 
ing so  common,  and  the  Baptist  cause  was  making  so 
rapid  progress  in  Providence  and  Newport,  that  specific 
legislation  against  Baptists  was  felt  to  be  desirable.  On 
November  13,  1644,  the  following  law  was  promulgated: 
"  Forasmuch  as  experience  hath  plentifully  proved  that 
since  the  first  arising  of  the  Anabaptists,  about  a  hundred 


Chap.  IV. 3  LAW  AGAINST  BAPTISTS.  12/ 

years  since,  they  have  been  the  incendiaries  of  common- 
weahhs  and  the  infecters  of  persons  in  main  matters  of 
religion,  and  the  troublers  of  churches  in  all  places  where 
they  have  been,  and  that  they  who  have  held  the  baptiz- 
ing of  infants  unlawful  have  usually  held  other  errors  or 
heresies  together  therewith,  though  they  have  (as  other 
heretics  used  to  do)  concealed  the  same  till  they  spied  out 
a  fit  advantage  and  opportunity  to  vent  them,  by  way  of 
questioi"h-or  scruple,  and  whereas  divers  of  this  kind  have, 
since  our  coming  into  New  England,  appeared  amongst 
ourselves,  some  whereof  have  (as  others  before  them)  de- 
nied the  ordinance  of  magistracy  and  the  lawfulness  of 
making  war,  and  others  the  lawfulness  of  magistrates  and 
their  inspection  into  any  breach  of  the  first  table,  which 
opinions,  if  they  should  be  connived  at  by  us,  are  like  to 
be  increased  among  us,  and  so  must  necessarily  bring  guilt 
upon  us,  infection  and  trouble  to  the  churches,  and  hazard 
to  the  whole  commonwealth,  it  is  ordered  and  agreed  that 
if  any  person  or  persons  within  this  jurisdiction  shall  either 
openly  condemn  or  oppose  the  baptism  of  infants,  or  go 
about  secretly  to  seduce  others  from  the  approbation  or 
use  thereof,  or  shall  purposely  depart  the  congregation  at 
the  administration  of  the  ordinance,  or  shall  deny  the  or- 
dinance of  magistracy  or  their  lawful  right  or  authority  to 
make  war  or  to  punish  the  outward  breaches  of  the  first 
table,  and  shall  appear  to  the  Court  willfully  and  obsti- 
nately to  continue  therein  after  due  time  and  means  of 
conviction,  every  such  person  or  persons  shall  be  sentenced 
to  banishment." 

The  statement  that  some  of  the  antipedobaptists  of  New 
England  "  denied  the  ordinance  of  magistracy  and  the  law- 
fulness of  making  war"  is  unsupported.  In  none  of  the 
cases  recorded  is  there  the  slightest  hint  of  the  holding  of 
such  views.     No  one  of  the  Baptists  of  New  England  can 


128  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.!. 

be  shown  to  have  held  to  or  taught  anything  of  the  kind. 
The  .statement  of  the  statute  may  possibly  be  accounted 
for  in  one  of  the  following  ways,  or  by  a  combination  of 
these:  i.  The  authorities  may  have  confounded  Anabap- 
tists with  antinomians.  The  antinomians  were  charged 
with  holding  and  promulgating  a  number  of  errors  that 
were  precisely  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  supplementing 
the  errors  of  the  Baptists  and  constituting  them  full- 
fledged  Anabaptists  of  the  dreaded  type.  Some  of  those 
who  had  been  more  or  less  closely  associated  with  the 
antinomians  had  become  Baptists  in  their  Rhode  Island 
home.  Winthrop  had  written  in  1641  :  "  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son and  those  of  Aquiday  Island  broached  new  heresies 
every  year.  Divers  of  them  turned  professed  Anabap- 
tists, and  would  not  wear  any  arms,  and  denied  all  magis- 
tracy among  Christians,  and  maintained  that  there  were  no 
churches  since  those  founded  by  the  apostles  and  evangel- 
ists, nor  could  any  be,  nor  any  pastors  ordained  nor  seals 
administered  but  by  such,  and  that  the  church  was  to  want 
these  all  the  time  she  continued  in  the  wilderness,  as  yet 
she  was."  This  statement  is  a  most  confused  one  and 
was  probably  based  upon  misinformation.  "  Those  who 
turned  professed  Anabaptists,"  so  far  as  v.e  know  them, 
were  different  persons  from  those  who  embraced  the  errors 
referred  to.  The  incongruity  of  applying  the  term  "  Ana- 
baptist "  to  those  who  held  that  the  valid  administration 
of  the  ordinances  was,  under  existing  circumstances,  an 
impo.ssibility,  is  manifest.  Roger  Williams,  in  adopting  this 
view,  withdrew  from  fellowship  with  the  Baptist  church 
he  had  founded.  But  even  Williams  was  far  from  reject- 
ing magistracy.  The  law  against  Baptists  was  probably 
framed  by  the  writer  of  this  confused  statement.  Even 
the  antinomians,  though  they  held  peculiar  views  with 
respect  to  magistracy,  and  were   charged  even  by  Roger 


Chap,  iv.]        UNFOUNDED    CHARGES.  1 29 

Williams  with  rejecting  it,  repudiated  the  charge.  2.  The 
statement  may  have  been  made,  not  on  the  ground  of  al- 
leged utterances  by  Baptists,  but  by  way  of  logical  infer- 
ence from  avowed  views.  The  Massachusetts  authorities 
supposed  themselves  to  be  such  masters  of  the  anatomy  of 
sects  that  from  a  single  feature  they  could  infer  the  entire 
structure.  The  denial  of  the  right  of  magistrates  to  in- 
terfere with  matters  of  conscience,  or  to  concern  them- 
selves in  any  way  with  breaches  of  "  the  first  table,"  no 
doubt  seemed  to  them  to  involve  denial  of  the  right  of 
magistrates  to  do  anything  effective.  Of  course  it  is  not 
impossible  that  some  individual  of  the  time  should  have 
combined  the  rejection  of  infant  baptism  with  denial  of 
magistracy  and  of  the  lawfulness  of  war  on  the  part  of 
Christians.  But  all  the  Baptists  of  New  England  that  we 
know  anything  about  were  quite  ready  to  serve  their  fel- 
low-citizens in  any  offices  to  which  they  might  be  called, 
and  they  were  ready  when  occasion  offered  to  do  their  full 
share  of  fighting. 

During  the  struggle  with  the  antinomians  a  law  had 
been  passed  prohibiting  newcomers  from  remaining  in 
the  colony  above  three  weeks  without  a  license.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1645,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  court  for  the 
alteration  of  this  law,  as  well  as  of  that  against  the  Ana- 
baptists. The  record  of  the  action  of  the  court  in  the 
premises  is:  "The  Court  hath  voted  that  the  laws  men- 
tioned should  not  be  altered  at  all,  nor  explained."  Evi- 
dently some  of  the  citizens  besides  the  avowed  Baptists 
were  coming  to  feel  that  banishment  was  too  severe  a 
penalty  for  religious  dissent,  and  were  bold  enough  to  say 
so.  To  fortify  the  court  in  its  attitude  toward  Baptists 
seventy-eight  residents  of  Dorchester,  Roxbury,  etc.,  peti- 
tioned in  Mav.  1646,  "  for  the  continuance  of  such  orders, 
without  abrogation  or  weakening,  as  are  in  force  against 


I  ^^o 


THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  i. 


Anabaptists  and  other  erroneous  persons."  This  petition, 
it  is  needless  to  say,  was  "granted."  In  October,  1648, 
the  court  was  "  informed  of  great  misdemeanor  committed 
by  Edward  Starbuck,  of  Dover,  with  profession  of  Ana- 
baptistry,  for  which  he  is  to  be  proceeded  against  at  the 
next  Court  of  Assistants  if  evidence  can  be  prepared  by 
that  time." 

The  following  record  is  interesting  as  containing  an  ac- 
count of  an  important  Baptist  movement  in  the  Plymouth 
colony,  and  also  as  illustrating  the  zeal  with  which  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  authorities  carried  their  activity  against 
"  Anabaptists  "  beyond  their  own  jurisdiction.  The  date 
of  this  letter  to  the  Plymouth  authorities  is  October,  1649: 

"  Honored  and  beloved  Brethren  :  We  have  heard  here- 
tofore of  divers  Anabaptists  arisen  up  in  your  jurisdiction, 
and  connived  at ;  but  being  but  few,  we  well  hoped  that 
it  might  have  pleased  God,  by  the  endeavors  of  yourselves 
and  the  faithful  elders  with  you,  to  have  reduced  such 
erring  men  again  into  the  right  way.  But  now,  to  our 
great  grief,  we  are  credibly  informed  that  your  patient 
bearing  with  such  men  hath  produced  another  effect, 
namely,  the  multiplying  and  increasing  of  such  errors,  and 
we  fear  maybe  of  other  errors  also,  if  timely  care  be  not 
taken  to  suppress  the  same.  Particulariy  we  understand 
that  within  this  few  weeks  there  have  been  at  Sea  Cunke 
thirteen  or  fourteen  persons  rebaptized  (a  swift  progress 
in  one  town),  yet  we  hear  not  if  any  effectual  restriction 
is  intended  thereabouts.  Let  it  not,  we  pray  you,  seem 
presumption  in  us  to  mind  you  hereof,  nor  that  we  ear- 
nestly entreat  you  to  take  care  as  well  of  the  suppressing 
of  errors  as  of  the  maintenance  of  truth,  God  equally  re- 
quiring the  performance  of  both  at  the  hands  of  Christian 
magistrates,  but  rather  that  you  will  consider  our  interest 
is  concerned  therein.     The  infection  of  such  diseases  being 


Chap,  iv.]  ZEAL  IX  PERSECUTION.  I3I 

SO  near  are  likely  to  spread  into  our  jurisdiction.  .  .  .  We 
are  united  by  confederacy,  by  faith,  by  neighborhood,  by 
fellowship  in  our  sufferings  as  exiles,  and  by  other  Chris- 
tian bonds,  and  we  hope  neither  Satan  nor  any  of  his  in- 
struments shall  by  these  or  any  other  errors  disunite  us, 
and  that  w^e  shall  never  have  cause  to  repent  us  of  our 
so  near  conjunction  with  you,  but  that  we  shall  both  so 
equally  and  zealously  uphold  all  the  truths  of  God  re- 
vealed that  we  may  render  a  comfortable  account  to  him 
that  hath  set  us  in  our  places  and  betrusted  us  with  the 
keeping  of  both  tables." 

Supposing  the  Massachusetts  Court  to  have  been  correct 
in  their  apprehension  of  the  will  of  God  and  the  duties  of 
magistrates,  and  in  regarding  the  Baptists  as  instruments 
of  Satan  to  disunite  the  colonies  bound  together  by  such 
tender  ties,  nothing  could  be  more  reasonable  than  the  re- 
quest or  demand  for  the  rigorous  suppression  of  these  in- 
novators. The  chief  disturber  of  the  Seekonk  (Rehoboth) 
community  was  Obadiah  Holmes,  whom  we  shall  meet 
later  among  the  sufferers  for  conscience'  sake.  After  a 
profound  religious  experience  in  England  (he  had  been  a 
wayward  son,  and  whereas  three  of  his  brothers  had  been 
educated  at  Oxford  he  had  refused  to  avail  himself  of  the 
opportunity  to  secure  a  liberal  education  and  had  derided 
religion),  he  came  to  New  England  in  1638.  He  united 
with  the  Salem  church,  where  he  remained  about  seven 
years.  Becoming  dissatisfied  there,  he  removed  to  Reho- 
both in  1645,  where  he  united  with  the  church  under  the 
ministry  of  Samuel  Newman.  In  1649,  having  become 
convinced,  along  wnth  some  others,  that  infant  baptism  was 
not  in  accord  with  the  teachings  of  Scripture,  they  were 
immersed  by  John  Clarke  of  Newport.  He  was  soon  after- 
ward excommunicated  by  his  pastor,  and  in  June,  1650, 
along  with  two  others,  was  presented  to  the  General  Court 


132  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

at  Plymouth,  four  petitions,  one  from  the  Boston  Court, 
ha\ing  been  entered  against  them.  In  October,  1652,  the 
following  "  Presentment  by  the  Grand  Inquest  "  was  in- 
serted in  the  Plymouth  records:  "  We  whose  names  are 
here  written,  being  the  grand  inquest,  do  present  to  this 
Court  John  Hazell,  Mr.  Edward  Smith  and  his  wife,  Oba- 
diah  Holmes,  Joseph  Tory  and  his  wife,  and  the  wife  of 
James  Mann,  William  Deuell  and  his  wife,  of  the  town  of 
Rehoboth,  for  the  continuing  of  a  meeting  upon  the  Lord's 
Day  from  house  to  house,  contrary  to  the  order  of  this 
Court,  enacted  June  12,  1650."  It  would  seem  from  this 
record  and  the  fact  that  no  sentence  appears  against  them, 
that  the  Plymouth  authorities  still  retained  a  considerable 
measure  of  the  Christian  moderation  of  the  father  of  the 
Pilgrims  and  fell  very  far  short  of  what  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  authorities  expected  and  required  of  them. 

The  supposition  of  Baptist  writers  has  been  that  the 
Baptists  who  for  months  held  regular  meetings  at  Reho- 
both under  the  leadership  of  Obadiah  Holmes  did  not 
constitute  a  Baptist  church.  There  seems  to  be  no  suffi- 
cient reason  why  they  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  church. 
Like  the  body  of  belie\ers  who  gathered  around  Roger 
Williams  at  Providence,  and  who  continued  for  many  years 
to  meet  from  house  to  house,  they  had  a  very  simple  organ- 
ization. If  we  call  the  meeting  a  church  we  may  date  the 
organization  of  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Massachusetts  in 
1649.  Soon  after  the  presentment  of  the  grand  inquest 
the  Baptists  of  Rehoboth  seem  to  have  remo\'ed  to  New- 
port, where  they  added  greatly  to  the  strength  of  John 
Clarke's  church.  Thus  the  day  for  organized  Baptist  work 
in  Massachusetts  was  postponed. 

In  his  "Brief  Narration,"  published  in  London,  1646, 
W^inslow,  writing  with  a  view  to  vindicating  the  New  Eng- 
land authorities  from  aspersions  current  in  England,  in- 


Chap,  iv.]  CHAUNCY'S  ANTIPEDOBAPTISM.  133 

volving  charges  of  persecution  of  dissent,  etc.,  gives  the 
following  interesting  bit  of  information:  "  Furthermore,  in 
the  Government  of  Plymouth,  to  our  great  grief,  not  only 
the  pastor  of  a  congregation  waiveth  the  administration  of 
baptism  to  infants,  but  divers  of  his  congregation  are  fallen 
with  him  ;  and  yet  all  the  means  the  civil  power  hath  taken 
against  him  and  them  is  to  stir  up  our  elders  to  give  meet- 
ing, and  see  if  by  godly  conference  they  may  be  able  to 
convince  and  reclaim  him,  as  in  mercy  once  before  they 
had  done,  by  God's  blessing  upon  their  labors.  Only  at 
the  foresaid  Synod  two  were  ordered  to  write  to  him  in 
the  name  of  the  Assembly,  and  to  request  his  presence  at 
their  next  meeting  aforesaid,  to  hold  forth  his  light  he 
goeth  by  in  waiving  the  practice  of  the  churches;  with 
promise,  if  it  be  light,  to  walk  by  it ;  but  if  it  appear  other- 
wise, then  they  trust  he  will  return  again  to  the  unity  of 
practice  with  them."  The  pastor  referred  to  is  commonly 
understood  to  be  Charles  Chauncy,  and  the  congregation 
that  of  Scituate.  Some  have  supposed  that  Winslow  was 
in  error  in  making  this  statement,  as  at  a  later  date  noth- 
ing is  said  about  Chauncy's  antipedobaptism,  although  for 
a  long  time  after  this  date  he  continued  to  insist  on  im- 
mersion as  the  act  of  baptism.  But  it  seems  incredible 
that  Winslow,  who  had  been  governor  of  the  colony  (1633 
onward)  and  had  all  along  occupied  a  prominent  position 
in  the  civil  rmd  religious  administration,  should  have  given 
publicity  to  so  grave  a  charge  as  that  involved  in  the 
statement  quoted  without  the  most  convincing  proof  of 
the  accuracy  of  his  facts.  His  account,  moreover,  is  too 
circumstantial  to  admit  of  the  possibility  of  mistake.  We 
are  justified,  therefore,  in  concluding  that  about  1646 
Chauncy,  afterward  president  of  Harvard  College,  wai\-ed 
the  administration  of  baptism  to  infants,  and  in  this  matter 
had  the  full  sympathy  of  a  portion  of  the  Scituate  church. 


134  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

From  the  fact  that  he  ceased  to  give  trouble  in  this  mat- 
ter, it  vvouki  seem  that  he  yielded  to  the  pressure  brought 
to  bear  upon  him  by  the  authorities.  His  insistence  on 
immersion  as  the  only  proper  baptism  was  no  doubt  re- 
garded by  the  authorities  as  more  venial,  and  in  this  he 
was  tolerated.  But  when,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next 
chapter,  he  had  an  opportunity  to  succeed  Henry  Dunster, 
who  had  been  removed  from  the  presidency  of  Harvard 
College  for  his  aggressive  maintenance  of  antipedobaptist 
views,  he  was  able  to  abandon  or  hold  in  abeyance  even 
this  poor  remnant  of  his  Baptist  teaching. 

The  treatment  of  John  Clarke,  Obadiah  Holmes,  and 
John  Crandall,  members  of  the  Newport  Baptist  church, 
by  the  Massachusetts  authorities  is  one  of  the  most  noto- 
rious instances  of  intolerance  toward  Baptists.  In  his  "  111 
News  from  New  England,"  already  referred  to,  Clarke 
gives  a  full  and  graphic  account  of  the  transaction,  includ- 
ing the  legal  warrants,  sentences,  etc.,  his  own  letters  to 
the  authorities,  and  Holmes's  very  realistic  account  of  his 
sufferings  and  religious  experiences.  The  accuracy  of 
Clarke's  narrative  has  never  been  called  in  c|uestion,  and 
is  in  agreement  with  the  records  of  the  court  and  other 
notices  in  the  writings  of  the  opponents  of  the  Baptists. 
Clarke's  account  is  headed:  "A  Faithful  and  True  Rela- 
tion of  the  Prosecution  of  Obadiah  Holmes,  John  Crandall, 
and  John  Clarke,  merely  for  Conscience  towards  God,  by 
the  Principal  Members  of  the  Church,  or  Common-wealth 
of  the  Massachusetts  .  .  .  ;  whereby  is  shown  their  dis- 
courteous Entertainment  of  Strangers,  and  how  that  Spirit 
by  which  they  are  led  would  order  the  whole  World,  if 
either  brought  under  them,  or  should  come  in  unto  them  : 
Drawn  forth  by  the  aforesaid  John  Clarke,  not  so  much  to 
answer  the  Importunity  of  Friends,  as  to  stop  the  mouths 
and  slanderous  reports  of  such  as  are  Enemies  to  the  Cross 


Chap,  iv.]  NElVrORT  BAPTISTS  AT  LYXX.  135 

of  Christ.  Let  him  that  leadeth  it  consider,  which  Church 
is  most  Hke  the  Church  of  Christ  (that  Prince  of  Peace, 
that  meek  and  gentle  Lamb,  that  came  into  this  World  to 
save  Men's  lives,  not  to  destroy  them),  the  Persecuted,  or 
Persecuting." 

It  will  be  possible  to  give  here  only  a  brief  resume  of 
this  interesting  episode.  The  three  brethren  named,  as 
representatives  of  the  Newport  church,  had  made  the  toil- 
some journey  to  Lynn,  Mass.,  at  the  request  of  the  aged 
and  blind  William  Witter,  whom  we  have  met  repeatedly 
as  a  pronounced  antipedobaptist.  It  is  likely  that  Witter's 
request  was  not  simply  on  his  own  behalf,  but  on  behalf  of 
a  number  of  his  neighbors  who  had  adopted  Baptist  views 
and  who  were  desirous  of  being  baptized  and  partaking  of 
the  Supper  according  to  the  Baptist  way.  The  authorities 
suspected,  but  were  not  in  a  position  to  prove,  that  bap- 
tism had  been  administered  to  one  or  more.  This  was 
neither  admitted  nor  denied  by  the  accused.  As  they 
were  quietly  worshiping  on  the  Lord's  Day  at  Witter's 
house,  two  miles  from  town,  two  constables  arrived  with 
a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  "  certain  erroneous  persons, 
being  strangers."  They  interrupted  the  service  and  in- 
sisted on  carrying  the  three  strangers  at  once  "  to  the  Ale- 
house or  Ordinary."  After  dinner  one  of  the  constables 
insisted  on  "  carrying  "  them  to  church.  They  agreed  to 
go  on  the  distinct  understanding  that  they  would  declare 
their  dissent  both  by  word  and  gesture,  and  would  hold 
no  communion  with  the  church.  Refusing  to  bare  their 
heads,  the  pastor  bade  the  constable  pluck  their  hats  off. 
Clarke  attempted  to  explain  the  ground  on  which  he  had 
refused  to  show  respect  to  the  worship  of  the  church  or 
to  hold  communion  therewith,  but  was  refused  a  hearing. 
To  the  offense  of  holding  an.  unlawful  meeting  was  thus 
added  that  of  disturbing  public  worship  and  denouncing 


136  THE  BAPTISrS.  [Per.  i. 

the  church  as  not  according  to  "  the  order  of  our  Lord." 
These  transactions  occurred  on  Jul)/  22,  165  i. 

A  few  days  later  they  were  tried  and  sentenced,  "  with- 
out producing  either  accuser,  witness,  jury,  law  of  God  or 
man."  "  In  our  examination  the  Governor  upbraided  us 
with  the  name  of  Anabaptists;  To  whom  I  answered,  I 
disown  the  name,  I  am  neither  an  Anabaptist,  nor  a  Pedo- 
baptist,  nor  a  Catabaptist ;  he  told  me  in  haste  I  was  all ; 
I  told  him  he  could  not  prove  us  to  be  either  of  them  ; 
he  said,  yes,  you  have  Re-baptized  ;  I  denied  it,  saying,  1 
have  Baptized  many,  but  I  never  Re-baptized  any  ;  then 
said  he,  you  deny  the  former  Baptism,  and  make  all  our 
worship  a  nullity  ;  I  tolci  him  he  said  it ;  moreover  I  said 
unto  them  (for  therefore  do  I  concei\-e  I  was  brought  be- 
fore them  to  be  a  testimony  against  them),  If  the  Testi- 
mony which  I  hold  forth  be  true,  and  according  to  the 
mind  of  God,  which  I  undoubtedly  affirm  it  is,  then  it 
concerns  you  to  look  to  your  standing.  The  like  to  this 
affirmed  the  other  two." 

On  the  ground  of  the  original  charges  and  the  state- 
ments made  by  the  accused  in  the  examination,  which  are 
enumerated  in  the  sentence,  Clarke  was  fined  "  20  pounds 
to  be  paid,  or  sufficient  sureties  that  the  said  sum  shall  be 
paid  by  the  first  day  of  the  next  Court  of  Assistants,  or 
else  to  be  well  whipt,  and  that  )-ou  .shall  remain  in  prison 
till  it  be  paid,  or  security  given  in  for  it."  Holmes,  doubt- 
less on  the  ground  that  he  was  an  old  ofTender  in  the 
Plymouth  colony,  was  fined  "  30  pounds  or  to  be  well 
whipt ;  and  the  sentence  of  John  Crandall  was  to  pay  5 
pounds,  or  be  well  whipt." 

When  Clarke  remonstrated  against  the  sentence,  for 
which  no  legal  authority  had  been  exhibited,  Governor 
Endicott  "  stept  up,  and  told  us  we  had  denied  Infants' 
Baptism,  and   being   somewhat   transported    broke   forth, 


Chap,  iv.]  CLARA'E'S  DEFENSE.  1 37 

and  told  me  I  had  deserved  death,  and  said,  he  would  not 
have  such  trash  brought  into  their  jurisdiction;  moreo\'er 
he  said,  you  go  up  and  down,  and  secretly  insinuate  into 
those  that  are  weak,  but  you  cannot  maintain  it  before 
our  Ministers;  you  may  try,  and  discourse  or  dispute  with 
them,  etc." 

Availing  himself  of  this  somewhat  informal  and  rash 
proposal,  Clarke  wrote  a  letter  to  the  governor  asking  for 
the  opportunit}^  of  disputing  in  public  "  with  freedom,  and 
without  molestation  of  the  ci\il  power,"  "  that  point  .  .  . 
where  I  doubt  not  by  the  strength  of  Christ  to  make  it 
good  out  of  his  last  Will  and  Testament,  unto  which  noth- 
ing is  to  be  added,  nor  from  which  nothing"  is  to  be  dimin- 
ished." The  governor  insisted  that  Clarke  had  misunder- 
stood him  in  thinking  that  he  promised  a  public  disputa- 
tion, and  the  ministers  no  doubt  heartily  disapproved  of 
giving  such  an  opportunity  to  so  erroneous  a  person  to 
disseminate  his  viev^s.  Clarke  made  full  preparation  for 
the  disputation,  v\'ith  the  understanding  that  it  would  be 
public.  The  theses  which  he  undertook  to  defend  included 
(i)  the  sole  Lordship  of  Christ  in  matters  cf  faith;  (2)  the 
testimony  "  that  baptism,  or  dipping  in  water,  is  one  of 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  a 
visible  believer,  or  disciple  of  Christ  Jesus,  ...  is  the 
only  person  that  is  to  be  baptized,  or  dipped  with  that 
visible  baptism,  or  dipping  of  Jesus  Christ  in  water,  and 
also  that  visible  person  that  is  to  walk  in  that  visible  order 
of  his  house,  and  so  to  wait  for  his  coming  a  second  time 
in  the  form  of  a  Lord  and  King,  with  his  glorious  King- 
dom according  to  promise";  (3)  the  liberty  and  duty  of 
every  believer  "  to  improve  that  talent  his  Lord  hath  given 
unto  him,  and  In  the  congregation  may  either  ask  for  in- 
formation for  himself,  or,  if  he  can,  may  speak  by  way  of 
prophecy  for  the  edification,  exhortation,  and  comfort  of 


jo3  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

the  whole,  and  out  of  the  congregation  at  all  times,  upon 
all  occasions  and  in  all  places,  as  far  as  the  jurisdiction  of 
his  Lord  extends  "  ;  and  (4)  a  testimony  in  favor  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  which,  with  his  arguments  in  favor  of  it,  has 
been  set  forth  in  an  earlier  chapter. 

A  friend  having  paid  the  fine,  the  authorities  insisted 
on  his  leaving  without  having  an  opportunity  to  set  forth 
his  views  in  a  disputation  wdth  a  representative  of  the 
standing  order.  He  protested  inefifectually  against  this 
course,  and  he  afterward  made  this  refusal  of  a  public 
disputation  a  ground  for  pubHshing  in  England  his  argu- 
ment in  full,  along  with  a  full  account  of  the  whole  trans- 
action. 

Crandall's  fine  was  paid,  but  Holmes  refused  on  principle 
to  allow  his  to  be  paid,  and  suffered  in  martyr  fashion  the 
alternative  penalty  of  whipping.  He  wrote  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  his  sufferings  to  John  Spilsbury,  the  first  Particu- 
lar Baptist  minister  in  England,  and  William  Kiffin,  one 
of  the  earliest  and  most  prominent.^  For  showing  sym- 
pathy with  Holmes  on  the  occasion  of  his  punishment  John 
Spur  and  John  Hazell  were  arrested  and  fined,  with  the 
alternative  penalty  of  whipping.  Their  fines  were  paid 
without  their  consent.  Spur  testified  that  in  a  sermon, 
preached  immediately  before  the  sentence  on  Clarke, 
Holmes,  and  Crandall  was  pronounced,  John  Cotton  "  af- 
firmed that  denying  infants'  baptism  would  overthrow  all ; 
and  this  was  a  capital  offense;  and  therefore  they  were 
soul  murderers." 

1  The  letter  is  embodied  in  Clarke's  work,  and  has  been  copied,  along 
with  most  of  the  documents  of  "  111  News,"  by  Backus,  vol.  i.,  pp.  187  seq. 


CHAPTER   V. 

PRESIDENT    HENRY    DUNSTER    AND    THE    BAPTISTS.^ 

Henry  Dunster  ranks  along  with  Roger  Williams 
and  John  Clarke  as  one  of  the  three  foremost  seventeenth- 
century  antipedobaptists  of  America.  Born  in  Lancashire, 
England,  somewhere  about  1610,  he  was  early  brought  to 
an  experimental  knowledge  of  the  truth.  In  giving  an 
account  of  his  early  religious  experience  he  said:  "The 
Lord  gave  me  an  attentive  ear  and  heart  to  understand 
preaching.  .  .  .  The  Lord  showed  me  my  sins  and  recon- 
ciliation by  Christ,  .  .  .  and  this  word  was  more  sweet  to 
me  than  anything  else  in  the  world."  His  highly  sensitive 
conscience  detected  grave  faults  in  his  early  manhood 
experience.  After  he  had  become  a  highly  developed 
Christian,  and  one  of  the  ablest  theologians  of  his  time,  in 
reviewing  his  experience  as  a  young  man  he  pronounced 
this  judgment :  "  The  greatest  thing  which  separated  my 
soul  from  God  was  an  inordinate  desire  of  human  learn- 
ing." His  course  at  the  University  of  Cambridge  brought 
him  into  contact  with  some  of  the  best  religious  life  in 
England,  and  when  he  was  graduated  B.A.  in  1630  and 
M.A.  in  1634,  his  Christian  character  seems  to  have  been 
quite  as  marked  as  his  learning.  Referring  to  his  uni- 
versity course  he  said :  "  After  this  I  went  to  Cambridge, 
when,  growing  more  careless,  I  lost  my  comfort.     But  I 

1  Cf.  Chaplin,  Backus,  Mather,  Winthrop,  Quincy  ("  Hist.  Harv.  Univ."), 
Ellis,  Hubbard,  Palfrey. 

139 


140  'J'HE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  1. 

came  to  Trinity  to  hear  Dr.  Preston,  by  whom  I  was  quick- 
ened and  revived."  Preston  was  one  of  the  leading"  Puri- 
tan churchmen  of  the  time.  Dunster  regarded  the  teach- 
ings of  Thomas  Goodwin,  "  in  many  respects  the  greatest 
divine  among  them  all,"  as  one  of  the  formative  influences 
in  his  life.  The  years  intervening  between  the  date  of  his 
first  degree  and  that  of  his  second  were  probably  spent 
chiefly  in  theological  studies.  Plis  well-known  proficiency 
in  oriental  languages  was  one  of  the  acquisitions  of  this 
time.  Among  his  contemporaries  were  a  number  of  men 
who  were  to  attain  to  world-wide  distinction.  It  will  sufifice 
to  mention  the  names  of  Cudworth,  Milton,  Henry  More, 
Jeremy  Taylor,  and  John  Harvarci.  He  probably  received 
ordination  as  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England.  His 
Confession  of  Faith  gives  some  intimations  of  the  exercises 
of  mind  that  led  him  to  abandon  the  ministry  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  and  to  seek  a  greater  measure  of  soul  free- 
dom in  New  England :  "  The  Lord  hath  made  me  bid  adieu 
to  all  worldly  treasures;  and  as  corruptions  in  the  Church 
came,  first  I  began  to  suspect  them,  then  to  hate  them." 
"  So,  after  ten  years'  trouble,  I  came  hither  [to  New  Y^Avg- 
lanci]  ;  and  the  Lord  gives  me  peace  to  see  the  order  of  his 
people."  His  thoroughgoing  separatism  finds  expression 
in  a  letter  written  to  a  friend  in  England:  "  It's  a  glorious 
church,  say  you?  Whence,  I  pray  you,  was  it  gathered, 
out  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  or  else  yet  it  stands  in  it?  If 
it  stand  yet  in  it,  then  it  is  one  of  the  dauglUers  of  the 
great  whore.  .  .  .  No,  the  Church  of  England  is  gathered 
out  of  Rome.  Come  out  of  her,  my  people.  .  .  .  But 
why  should  we  gather  a  church  out  of  the  English  Church  ? 
I  pray  you,  Sir,  where  hath  Christ  constituted  a  church  of 
that  form  ?  Where's  the  national  ministry,  temple,  etc.  ? 
If  you  will  find  this,  you  haAC  the  verity,  we  the  vanity. 
If  congregations  be  the  \isible  churches  of  Christ,  we  have 


Chap,  v.]  DUA'STER  IX  XEJV  EXGLAXD.  14I 

the  day  in  that  respect."  Equally  decided  was  his  antag- 
onism to  Scottish  Presbyterianism.  "  A  reformation  of 
the  Scottish  edition,"  he  thought,  would  leave  the  English 
people  "  in  great  distress,  inward  and  outward."  This  was 
written  when  the  Scotch  were  struggling  with  might  and 
main  for  the  civil  and  religious  mastery  of  Britain,  and 
were  proposing  to  force  Presbyterianism  on  the  entire 
population.  "  National  and  provincial  churches  are  nulli- 
ties ill  rcniin  natura  [in  the  nature  of  things]  since  the 
dissolution  of  that  of  the  Jews."  That  he  was  a  somewhat 
advanced  republican  is  evident  from  the  following:  "If 
the  people  and  nation  be  free  from  monarchy,  the  ques- 
tion is,  what  form  they  should  set  up?  And  what,  I  pray 
you,  but  that  which  is  most  suitable  to  the  matter?  I 
say,  the  form  which  is  most  suitable  to  the  matter;  which 
the  nation  itself,  by  their  faithful  representatives,  being 
pious  and  prudent  men,  can  best  judge  of." 

Dunster  reached  New  England  toward  the  latter  end  of 
summer,  1640.  He  soon  purchased  a  property  in  Boston, 
"  then  rather  a  village  than  a  town,"  yet  full  of  enterprise 
and  growing  rapidly.  The  entire  population  of  New  Eng- 
land at  this  time  probably  did  not  reach  twenty  thousand. 
More  than  two  thirds  of  these  were  in  Massachusetts,  and 
something  over  two  thousand  each  in  Plymouth,  Connect- 
icut, and  New  Haven.  In  1643  all  the  British  colonies, 
except  Rhode  Island  and  Providence,  formed  a  sort  of 
federation  "  for  mutual  help  and  strength,"  under  the  style 
of  "  The  United  Colonies  of  New  England."  Thus  Dun- 
ster arrived  at  a  time  when  colonial  affairs  were  already 
well  advanced,  and  when,  owing  to  the  troubles  that  were 
about  to  overwhelm  England,  New  England  would  be 
sure  to  receive  a  large  influx  of  population,  and,  what  was 
possibly  of  even  greater  importance  in  the  eyes  of  the 
colonists,  immunity  from  interference  on  the  part  of  the 


142  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

home  government.  One  of  the  most  noteworthy  features 
of  early  colonial  life  was  the  almost  entire  absence  of  law- 
yers. The  irregularity  of  court  procedures,  and  the  tend- 
ency to  follow  the  Mosaic  code  rather  than  the  English 
statutes,  may  be  attributed  in  part  to  this  fact;  though  it 
must  be  said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  deficiency  of 
lawyers  was  due  to  lack  of  encouragement,  and^  that  this 
was  due  in  turn  to  the  theocratic  sentiments  of  the  colo- 
nists. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  the  early  New  England  colo- 
nists were  university  graduates.  By  1640  it  is  estimated 
that  there  were  forty  to  fifty  Cambridge  men,  and  "  the 
sons  of  Oxford  were  not  few."  There  must  have  been 
something  highly  congenial  to  the  intellectual  and  devout 
Dunster  in  his  New  England  environment.  Scarcely  had 
he  settled  in  his  new  home  in  Boston  when  he  received  an 
enthusiastic  call  to  the  presidency  of  the  college  at  Cam- 
bridge (August,  1640).  His  qualifications  for  the  position 
were  recognized  as  extraordinary,  and  his  coming  just 
when  needed  was  regarded  by  his  contemporaries  as  provi- 
dential. "  Mr.  Henry  Dunster  is  now  President  of  this 
College,"  wrote  Captain  Johnson  in  his  "  Wonder-Work- 
ing Providence,"  "  fitted  from  the  Lord  for  the  work,  and, 
by  those  that  have  skill  that  way,  reported  to  be  an  able 
Proficient  in  both  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  languages,  an 
Orthodox  Preacher  of  the  truths  of  Christ,  very  powerful 
through  his  blessing  to  move  the  affections.  But  seeing 
the  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  raise  up  so  worthy  an  in- 
strument for  their  good,  he  shall  not  want  for  encourage- 
ment to  go  on  with  the  work,  so  far  as  a  rustical  rh}-me 
shall  reach."  We  will  not  quote  his  rhyme,  which  repeats 
the  recognition  of  providential  dealing  in  the  matter,  and 
intimates  that  already  young  men  were  coming  from  Eng- 
land to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  the  new  college,  so  that 


Chap,  v.]  PRESIDENT  OF  HARVARD.  1 43 

New  England  was  repaying  England  for  the  borrowed 
Dunster.  In  "  New  England's  First  Fruits,"  published  in 
London  in  an  early  year  of  Dunster's  presidency  (1643), 
it  is  said:  "Over  the  College  is  Master  Henry  Dunster 
placed  as  President ;  a  learned,  considerable,  and  indus- 
trious man,  who  hath  so  trained  up  his  pupils  in  the 
tongues  and  arts,  and  so  seasoned  them  with  the  princi- 
ples of  Divinity  and  Christianity,  that  we  have,  to  our 
great  comfort,  and  in  truth  beyond  our  hopes,  beheld 
their  progress  in  learning  and  godliness  also." 

The  college  was  only  a  school  when  Dunster  assumed 
the  headship  in  1640,  and  for  two  years  past  it  had  been 
in  charge  of  an  incapable  man,  who  had  been  dismissed 
for  unworthy  conduct.  Dunster  was  really  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  college,  properly  so  called,  and  the  fourteen 
years  of  consecrated  toil  that  he  gave  it  brought  it  into 
a  position  exceeding  the  hopes  of  its  best  friends.  Its 
resources  were,  as  may  be  supposed,  exceedingly  scant}^ 
its  staff  was  small,  its  buildings  inadecpiate,  its  library 
meager;  but  with  an  enthusiastic  head  like  Dunster,  ready 
to  sacrifice  means  and  health  for  the  furtherance  of  its  in- 
terests, its  students  had  advantages  such  as  are  sometimes 
wanting  in  the  most  amply  endowed  and  equipped  uni- 
versities. "  He  united  in  himself,"  says  Ouincy,  a  presi- 
tlent  and  historian  of  the  college,  "  the  character  of  both 
patron  and  President ;  for,  poor  as  he  was,  he  contributed, 
at  a  time  of  its  utmost  need,  one  hundred  acres  of  land  to- 
ward its  support ;  besides  rendering  to  it,  for  a  succession 
of  years,  a  series  of  official  services,  well  directed,  unwea- 
ried, and  altogether  inestimable." 

He  united  with  the  Cambridge  church,  of  which  Mr. 
Shepard  was  pastor.  In  giving  an  account  of  his  religious 
experience  and  doctrinal  views  he  differed  in  one  point 
only  from  his  New  England  brethren,  namely,  in  his  pref- 


J 44  ^'^^^'   BAPTISTS.  [I'KU.  1. 

erence  for  immersion  as  the  act  of  baptism  ;  yet,  as  "  there 
is  something  for  sprinkhng  in  the  Scriptures,  he  should 
not  be  ofifended  when  it  was  used." 

He  married,  in  1641,  the  widow  of  a  minister  who  had 
died  on  his  way  from  England.  He  was  a  true  father  to 
her  five  children,  who  proved  to  be  possessed  of  more 
than  average  gifts  and  graces.  Two  of  the  daughters 
married  sons  of  Governor  Winthrop,  and  it  is  to  this  cir- 
cumstance that  we  owe  the  preservation  of  important 
documentary  material  on  Dunster's  life  that  would  other- 
wise, in  all  probability,  have  been  lost.  Left  a  widower 
in  1643,  he  was  married  again  in  1644.  Of  this  marriage 
five  children  were  born.  Representatives  of  the  family 
still  remain. 

Early  in  his  New  p:ngiand  career,  Dunster  began  to 
manifest  a  profound  interest  in  the  Indians.  John  Eliot 
had  his  heartiest  cooperation.  Lechford,  Boston's  one 
lawyer  (in  his  "  Plain  Dealing,"  etc.),  gives  us  an  early 
account  of  Dunster's  views  of  Indian  evangehzation : 
"  Master  Henry  Dunster,  schoolmaster  at  Cambridge,  de- 
ser\es  commeiidations  above  man\- ;  he  hath  the  platform 
and  the  way  of  conversion  of  the  natives  indilTerent  right, 
and  much  studies  the  same,  wherein  }'et  he  wants  not 
opposition,  as  some  others  also  have  met  with.  He  will 
without  doubt  prove  an  instrument  of  much  good  in  the 
country,  being  a  good  scholar,  and  having  skill  in  the 
tongues.  He  will  make  it  good  that  the  way  to  instruct 
the  Indians  must  be  in  their  own  language,  not  English, 
and  that  their  language  may  be  perfected."  It  was  prob- 
ably at  his  suggestion  that  the  commissioners  of  the  colo- 
nies made  provision  for  the  education  at  Cambridge  of 
young  men  "  to  be  helpful  in  teaching  such  Indian  chil- 
dren as  .should  be  taken  into  the  College  for  that  end."  It 
was  on  his  recommendation  that  the  second  charter  of  the 


Chap,  v.]  ORIENTAL   STUDIES.  1 45 

college  (1650)  stated  the  object  of  the  college  to  be  "  the 
education  of  the  English  and  Indian  youth  of  this  country 
in  knowledge  and  godliness."  The  building  called  the 
"  Indian  College,"  though  not  erected  until  years  after 
the  close  of  his  presidency,  may  have  been  in  part  a  result 
of  Dunster's  pi-ofound  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
the  aborigines. 

The  following  sentences  from  a  letter  to  Ravius,  a  dis- 
tinguished European  orientalist  of  the  time,  will  illustrate 
Dunster's  enthusiasm  for  oriental  studies  and  his  success 
in  imparting  his  enthusiasm  to  his  students:  "If  God's 
providence  put  an  opportunity  into  your  hand  that  you 
help  us  with  books  of  those  languages  from  some  able 
hands  and  willing  hearts,  .  .  .  then  should  we  be  very 
glad  and  evermore  thankful  to  you  and  them  who  shall 
procure  us  Buxtorf's  Concordances  and  Bible  (for  the  King 
of  Spain's  we  have,  and  the  King  of  France's  Bible  is  more 
than  we  dare  hope  for)  and  whatsoever  Hebrew,  Chaldee, 
Syriac,  or  Arabic  authors  God's  providence  shall  enlarge 
their  hands  and  hearts  to  procure  us.  A  wonderful  im- 
pulse unto  these  studies  lies  on  the  spirits  of  our  students, 
some  of  whom  can  with  ease  dexterously  translate  Hebrew 
and  Chaldee  into  Greek." 

It  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  purpose  of  this  chapter 
to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the  labors  of  President  Dun- 
ster  in  and  for  Harvard  College,  or  the  personal  sacrifices 
that  he  made  in  order  that  the  work  might  go  prosper- 
ously on.  His  multifarious  duties,  as  teacher  of  many 
subjects,  as  the  executive  head  of  the  institution,  as  finan- 
cial agent,  etc.,  were  familiar  to  most  college  presidents 
a  generation  ago,  and  are  the  portion  of  many  a  noble 
worker  to-day.  But  he  loved  his  work  and  bore  his  hard- 
ships with  rare  cheerfulness,  and  thereby  commended 
himself  and   his   college  to  all  who  had  the  interests  of 


146  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

the  institution  and  of  the  cause  of  Christian  education  at 
heart. 

But  the  time  was  coming  when  for  conscience'  sake  he 
must  lay  down  the  work  to  which  he  had  given  the 
strength  of  his  manhood  and  which  was  dearer  to  him 
than  hfe  itself,  and  when  those  who  had  gloried  in  his 
successful  work  could  see  no  other  course  open  to  them 
than  to  dispense  with  his  invaluable  services.  Some  time 
between  1648  and  1653  President  Dunster  had  reached 
the  settled  conviction  that  "  visible  believers  onl}.'  should 
be  baptized."  It  is  probable  that  for  some  years  he  had 
entertained  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  infant  baptism 
before  the  conviction  of  its  unscriptural  and  antiscriptural 
character  so  mastered  him  that  he  could  no  longer  keep 
silent.  The  responsibility  that  attached  to  the  high  and 
honorable  position  that  he  occupied,  and  the  foreseen  con- 
sequences to  himself  (which  he  said  was  the  least  impor- 
tant consideration)  and  to  his  family,  which  he  could  not 
but  shrink  from,  must  have  availed  with  a  man  of  his  dis- 
cretion to  prevent  him  from  rashly  committing  himself  to 
views  which  his  brethren  were  sure  to  look  upon  with 
amazement  and  horror.  The  determination  of  anything 
like  the  exact  date  of  his  change  of  view  is  rendered  im- 
possible by  what  seem  to  be  conflicting  data.  Cotton 
Mather  places  the  defection  of  Dunster  "  presently  "  after 
the  settlement  of  Mitchell  as  pastor  of  the  Cambridge 
church.  The  occasion  of  his  declaration  of  his  views  was 
the  birth  of  a  child  which  he  withheld  from  baptism.  As 
Mitchell  became  pastor  in  1650,  and  as  a  child  was  born 
to  the  Dunsters  during  that  year,  it  would  seem  to  follow 
that  Dunster's  change  of  view  with  reference  to  the  sub- 
jects of  baptism  occurred  some  time  before.  But  a  letter 
of  Dunster's  has  been  brought  to  light  which  bears  in- 
ternal evidence  of  having  been  written  about  December, 


Chap,  v.]  REJECTS  INFANT  BAPTISM.  147 

1 65  I.  In  answer  to  the  question  of  an  English  corre- 
spondent :  "  What  do  you  do  with  them  that  are  baptized, 
but  give  no  satisfactory  testimony  of  piety  when  they 
come  to  age?  "  he  answered:  "  None  of  their  children  are 
baptized  until"  one  of  the  parents  at  least  do  approve 
themselves  faithful  and  be  joined  to  the  church.  I  have 
herewith  sent  you  Mr.  Davenport's  catechism,  where  the 
question  is  handled,  and  answered  according  to  practice." 
This  statement  has  been  supposed  (Chaplin,  109)  to 
prove  that  Dunster  held  to  infant  baptism  as  late  as  De- 
cember, 165  I.  But  as  he  was  professedly  giving  informa- 
tion as  to  the  New  England  practice  rather  than  com- 
municating his  own  individual  views,  there  is  no  apparent 
reason  why  he  should  not,  though  at  the  time  an  anti- 
pedobaptist,  have  expressed  himself  as  he  did.  But  it  is, 
on  the  whole,  more  probable  that  Mather  was  somewhat 
inaccurate  in  dating  Dunster's  protest  against  infant  bap- 
tism "  presently  "  after  the  beginning  of  Mitchell's  pastor- 
ate, and  that  the  infant  withheld  from  baptism  was  one 
born  in  1653.  In  that  case  it  is  probable  that  the  infant 
born  in  1650  was  duly  baptized,  and  it  would  follow  that 
Dunster's  convictions  had  not  at  that  time  become  over- 
mastering. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  persecution  of  Clarke, 
Holmes,  and  Crandall,  in  the  summer  of  165 1,  had  the 
effect  of  awakening  Dunster's  conscience  on  the  matter  of 
infant  baptism.  He  may  have  become  intellectually  con- 
vinced some  time  before  that  the  practice  is  without  Script- 
ural warrant.  The  suffering  of  these  men  for  what  he 
recognized  as  the  truth  may  have  so  impressed  the  matter 
upon  his  heart  and  conscience  that  he  could  no  longer  as 
an  honest  man  withhold  the  expression  of  his  views,  or 
when  occasion  should  arise  refrain  from  acting  upon 
them.     Cotton  Mather's  account  of  the  declaration  of  Dun- 


148  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

ster  against  infant  baptism,  and  of  the  efforts  made  to  win 
him  from  the  error  of.  his  ways,  is  so  graphic  and  full,  and 
so  well  illustrates  the  personal  power  of  Dunster  and  the 
high  consideration  in  which  he  was  held,  as  well  as  the 
consternation  into  which  his  pastor  and  other  leading  min- 
isters and  laymen  were  thrown  by  Dunster's  adoption  of 
"  Anabaptist  "  views,  that  it  seems  advisable  to  quote  a 
portion  of  it :  "  Our  Mitchell,  presently  upon  his  becom- 
ing pastor  of  Cambridge,  met  with  a  more  than  ordinary 
trial,  in  that  the  good  man  who  was  then  President  of  the 
College  was  unaccountably  fallen  into  the  briars  of  Anti- 
pedobaptism ;  and  being  briar'd  in  the  scruples  of  that 
persuasion,  he  not  only  forbore  to  present  an  infant  of  his 
own  unto  the  Baptism  of  our  Lord,  but  also  thought  him- 
self under  some  obligation  to  bear  his  testimony  in  some 
sermons  against  the  administration  of  baptism  to  any  in- 
fant whatsoever.  The  brethren  of  the  Church  were  some- 
what vehement  and  violent  in  their  signifying  of  their  dis- 
satisfaction at  the  obstruction,  which  the  renitencies  of 
that  gentleman  threatened  with  the  peaceable  practice  of 
infant  baptism,  wherein  they  had  hitherto  walked ;  and 
judged  it  necessary  for  the  vindication  of  the  Church's 
name  abroad  in  the  country,  and  for  the  safety  of  the 
Congregation  at  home,  to  desire  him  that  he  would  cease 
preaching  as  formerly,  until  he  had  better  satisfied  himself 
in  the  point  now  doubted  by  him.  At  these  things  ex- 
treme was  the  uneasiness  of  our  Mitchell,  who  told  the 
brethren  that  more  light  and  less  heat  would  do  better ; 
but  yet  saw  the  zeal  of  some  against  this  good  man's 
error,  to  push  the  matter  on  so  far,  that  being  but  a 
young  man,  he  was  likely  now  to  be  embarrassed  in  a 
controversy  with  so  considerable  a  person,  and  wnth  one 
who  had  been  his  tutor,  and  a  worthy  and  godly  man. 
He  could  afive  this  account  of  it:  'Through  the  Church's 


Chap,  v.]  MITCHELL'S  EXPERIENCES.  1 49 

being  apt  to  hurry  on  too  fast  and  too  impatiently,  I  found 
myself  much  oppressed ;  especially  considering  my  own 
weakness  to  grapple  with  these  difficulties ;  this  business 
did  lie  down  and  rise  up,  sleep  and  wake  with  me.  It  was 
a  dismal  thing  to  me,  that  I  should  live  to  see  truth  or 
peace  dying  or  decaying  in  poor  Cambridge.'  But  while 
he  was,  with  a  prudence  incomparably  beyond  what  might 
have  been  expected  from  a  young  man,  managing  this 
thorny  business,  he  saw  cause  to  record  a  passage  which 
perhaps  will  be  judged  worthy  of  some  remembrance. 
'That  day,'  writes  he,  (Decemb.  24,  1653,)  'after  I  came 
from  him,  I  had  a  strange  experience ;  I  found  hurrying 
and  pressing  suggestions  against  Pedobaptism,  and  in- 
jected scruples  and  thoughts  whether  the  other  way  might 
not  be  right,  and  infant  baptism  an  invention  of  men  ;  and 
whether  I  might  with  a  good  conscience  baptise  children, 
and  the  like.  And  these  thoughts  were  darted  in  with 
some  impression,  and  left  a  strange  confusion  and  sickli- 
ness upon  my  spirit.  Yet,  methought,  it  was  not  hard  to 
discern,  that  they  were  from  the  EVIL  ONE.  First, 
Because  they  were  rather  injected  hurrying  suggestions, 
than  any  deliberate  thoughts,  or  bringing  any  light  with 
them.  Secondly,  Because  they  were  unseasonable;  inter- 
rupting me  in  my  study  for  the  Sabbath,  and  putting  my 
spirit  into  a  confusion,  so  as  I  had  much  ado  to  do  aught 
in  my  sermon.  It  was  not  now  a  time  to  study  that  mat- 
ter; but  when,  in  the  former  part  of  the  week,  I  had  given 
myself  to  that  study,  the  more  I  studied  it,  the  more  clear 
and  rational  light  I  saw  for  Pedobaptism.  But  now  these 
suggestions  hurried  me  into  scruples.  But  they  made  me 
cry  out  to  God  for  his  help ;  and  he  did  afterward  calm 
and  clear  up  my  spirit.  I  thought  the  end  of  them  was, 
First,  to  show  me  the  corruption  of  my  mind ;  how  apt 
that  was  to  take  in  error,  even  as  my  heart  is  to  take  in 


ISO 


THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 


lust.  Secondly,  to  make  me  walk  in  fear  and  take  hold 
on  Jesus  Christ  to  keep  me  in  the  truth;  and  it  was  a 
check  to  my  former  self-confidence,  and  it  made  me  fear- 
ful to  go  needlessly  to  Mr.  D.,  for  methought  I  found  a 
venom  and  poison  in  his  insinuations  and  discourses 
against  Pedobaptism.  Thirdly,  that  I  might  be  mindful  of 
the  aptness  in  others  to  be  soon  shaken  in  mind,  and  that 
I  might  warn  others  thereof,  and  might  know  how  to 
speak  to  them  from  experience.  And  indeed  my  former 
experience  of  irreligious  injection  w^as  some  help  to  me  to 
discover  the  nature  of  these.  I  resolved  also  on  Mr. 
Hooker's  principle,  that  I  would  have  an  argument  able 
to  remove  a  mountain,  before  I  would  recede  from,  or  ap- 
pear against,  a  truth  or  practice,  received  among  the  faith- 
ful. After  the  Sabbath  was  over,  and  I  had  time  to  reflect 
upon  the  thoughts  of  those  things,  those  thoughts  of  doubt 
departed,  and  I  returned  unto  my  former  frame.'  The 
troubles  thus  impending  over  the  Church  of  Cambridge, 
did  Mr.  Mitchell  happily  wade  through;  partly  by  much 
prayer  with  fasting,  in  secret,  before  God,  for  the  good 
issue  of  these  things ;  partly  by  getting  as  much  help  as 
he  could  from  the  Neighboring  Ministers,  to  be  interposed 
in  these  difficulties;  and  partly  by  using  much  meekness 
and  wisdom  towards  the  erroneous  gentleman;  for  whom 
our  Mr.  Mitchell  continued  such  an  esteem,  that  although 
his  removal  from  the  government  of  the  College,  and  from 
his  dwelling-place  in  Cambridge,  had  been  procured  by 
these  differences,  yet  when  he  died,  he  honored  him  with 
an  elegy." 

The  elegiac  stanzas,  which  Mather  quotes,  though  not 
meritorious  from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  were  doubtless 
well  intended ;  but  Mitchell's  tribute  to  Dunster's  holiness 
seems  slightly  inconsistent  with  the  grounds  on  which  he 
persuaded  himself  that  his  conscientious  .scruples  against 


CiiAr.  v.]        rROCEEDIXGS  AGAIXST  DUXSTER.  15I 

infant  baptism  were  injections  of  the  Evil  One,  and  that 
there  was  a  venom  and  poison  in  Dunster's  antipedobap- 
tist  teachings.  Mather  was  of  the  opinion  "  that  there 
was  a  special  design  of  Heaven  in  ordering  these  trials  to 
befall  our  Mitchell,  thus  in  the  beginning  of  his  ministry. 
He  was  hereby  put  upon  studying  and  maintaining  the 
doctrine  of  infant  baptism.  ...  In  the  defense  of  this 
comfortable  truth,  he  not  only  preached  more  than  half  a 
score  ungainsa3'able  sermons,  while  his  own  Church  was 
in  some  danger  by  the  hydrophobia  of  anabaptism,  which 
was  come  upon  the  mind  of  an  eminent  person  in  it ; 
but  also  when  afterwards  the  rest  of  the  Churches  were 
troubled  by  a  strong  attempt  upon  them  from  the  spirit 
of  anabaptism,  there  was  a  public  disputation  appointed  at 
Boston  two  days  together,  for  the  clearing  of  the  faith  in 
this  article,  tliis  worthy  man  was  he  w^ho  did  most  ser\-ice 
in  this  disputation."  No  right-thinking  person  can  fail  to 
sympathize  with  the  brilliant  and  amiable  young  pastor  in 
his  trying  situation  ;  and  his  determination  "  to  have  an 
argument  able  to  remove  a' mountain"  before  he  should 
"  recede  from,  or  appear  against,  a  truth  or  practice,  re- 
ceived among  the  faithful,"  represents  the  spirit  of  con- 
servatism in  all  ages  and  in  all  denominations. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  magistrates  (assist- 
ants) could  not  long  avoid  taking  cognizance  of  the  fact 
that  the  president  of  the  college  had  turned  antipedobap- 
tist.  About  January,  1654  (N.  S.),  they  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  ministers,  stating  that  they  had  been  informed  "  that 
Mr.  Dunster,  President  of  the  College,  hath  by  his  practice 
and  opinions  against  infant  baptism  rendered  himself  of- 
fensive to  this  government,"  and  requesting  their  coopera- 
tion in  measures  "for  the  preventing  or  removing  of  that 
which  may  tend  to  the  prejudice  of  the  College  and  scan- 
dal to  the  country."     The  ministers  are  requested  "so  to 


152  THE  BAPTISTS,  [Per.  i. 

deal  ill  this  business  that  we  may,  at  our  next  meeting,  be 
thoroughly  informed  how  the   matter  stands  with  him  in 
respect  of  his  opinions,  and  be  thereby  enabled  to  under- 
stand what  may  be   expected  of  us."      On  February  2d 
and  3d  a  conference  was  held  between  President  Dunster 
and  nine  of  the  leading  ministers  of  the  vicinity,  besides 
two  ruling  elders.      The  president  proposed  his  thesis  in 
regular  scholastic   form  in   Latin :    Soli   visibilitcr  fidcles 
sunt  baptizcndi  (visible  believers  alone  should  be  baptized). 
John  Norton,  one  of  the  chief  disputants,  somewhat  indis- 
creetly admitted  the  truth  of  the  proposition.     "  We  grant 
it,  but  say  infants  of  believing  parents  in  church  state  are 
visible  believers."      His  proof  of  this  statement  was  based 
upon  the  supposed  parallelism  between  the  Jewish  church 
and  the    Christian,  which   Dunster  of  course  repudiated. 
After   the   argument  based  on  the  Abrahamic  covenant 
and  the  grounding  of  infant  baptism  on  the  rite  of  circum- 
cision had  been   threshed  out,  the  president  assumed  an 
aggressive  attitude  and  advanced  the  following  argument : 
"  All  instituted  gospel  worship  hath  some  express  word  of 
Scripture.     But  pedobaptism  hath  none.     Ergo.'"     Norton 
insisted  that   "it  hath  a  word  by  manifest  consequence." 
Dunster   demanded    to    have    the  word  pointed  out.      It 
must  be  either  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New.      If  in 
the  New,  it  must  be  either  "  in  John's  baptism,  or  Christ's, 
or  his  disciples'."      "  John  only  baptized  penitent  believers 
confessing  their  sins.      Then  not  infants.      Ergo."     When 
Norton    denied    the    major    premise,    Dunster    rejoined: 
"  They  that  cannot  speak  are  not  penitent  believers  con- 
fessing their  sins."      Norton  insisted  that  "  they  speak  vir- 
tually.  .   .   .   We  all  in  Adam  did  virtually  speak  a  word  in 
the  covenant  of  works."      Danforth  added:  "So  may  we 
be  baptized  in  our  parents."     Dunster  insisted  on  personal 
faith.      Norton  conceded  this  point,  but  held  that  "  an  in- 


Chap,  v.]       CONFERENCE    ON  INFANT  BAPTISM.  1 53 

fant  makes  his  covenant  in  a  public  person."  Dunster 
claimed  that  "there  is  now  no  public  person  but  Christ 
for  us  to  stand  in."  The  argument  from  i  Corinthians 
vii.  14  was  adduced  by  Dunster's  opponents  and  explained 
in  a  Baptist  way  by  Dunster.  The  report  of  the  discus- 
sion is  evidently  a  very  abbreviated  one,  little  more  than 
the  heads  of  the  arguments  being  given  ;  but  nothing  said 
by  the  representatives  of  the  standing  order  was  calculated 
to  produce  the  slightest  impression  on  one  who  had  come 
to  see  the  significance  and  value  of  believers'  baptism  and 
to  realize  the  evils  of  infant  baptism. 

In  a  letter  written  at  about  the  time  of  the  conference, 
President  Dunster  thus  sets  forth  his  view  of  the  evil  of 
infant  baptism :  "  That  way  of  worship  which  forcibly  de- 
prives the  spiritual  babes  and  converts  of  the  church  of 
the  due  consolation  from  Christ  and  dutiful  obligation  to 
Christ — that  is  justly  suspicious.  But  the  baptism  of  un- 
regenerate  infants  forcibly  deprives  the  spiritual  babes  and 
converts  of  the  church  of  their  due  consolation  from  Christ, 
viz.,  the  remission  of  sin,  etc.,  and  dutiful  obligation  to 
Christ,  viz.,  to  believe  on  him,  die  with  him  to  sin,  and  rise 
to  newness  of  life." 

Three  months  after  the  conference,  on  the  basis  of  the 
ministers'  report,  no  doubt,  the  General  Court  issued  the 
following  order:  "Forasmuch  as  it  greatly  concerns  the 
welfare  of  this  country  that  the  youth  thereof  be  educated 
not  only  in  good  literature,  but  sound  doctrine,  this  Court 
doth  therefore  commend  it  to  the  serious  consideration 
and  special  care  of  the  Overseers  of  the  College,  and  the 
selectmen  of  the  several  towns,  not  to  admit  or  suffer  any 
such  to  be  continued  in  the  office  or  place  of  teaching, 
educating,  or  instruction  of  youth  or  child,  in  the  college 
or  school,  that  have  manifested  themselves  unsound  in  the 
faith,  or  scandalous  in  their  lives,  and  not  giving  due  sat- 


154  ^'^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Pf.k.  I. 

isfaction  according  to  the  rules  of  Christ."  A  few  weeks 
later  (June  lO,  1654)  Dunster  offered  his  resignation  in 
the  following  form  :  "  I  here  resign  up  the  place  wherein 
hitherto  I  have  labored  with  all  my  heart  (blessed  be  the 
Lord  who  gave  it),  serving  you  and  yours.  And  hence- 
forth (that  you  in  the  interim  may  be  provided)  I  shall  be 
willing  to  do  the  best  I  can  for  some  weeks  or  months  to 
continue  the  work,  if  the  Society  in  the  interim  fall  not  to 
pieces  in  our  hands;  and  what  advice  for  the  present  or 
for  the  future  I  can  give  for  the  public  good,  in  this  be- 
half, with  all  readiness  of  mind  I  shall  do  it,  and  daily,  by 
the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  pray  the  Lord  to  help 
and  counsel  us  all,  in  whom  I  rest."  The  resignation  was 
not  accepted  at  once  by  the  court,  but  it  was  left  with  the 
overseers  of  the  college  to  "  make  provision,  in  case  he 
persist  in  his  resolution  more  than  one  month  (and  inform 
the  Overseers),  for  some  meet  person  to  carry  on  and  end 
that  work  for  the  present."  There  was  no  precipitancy  on 
the  part  of  the  authorities,  who  were  evidently  reluctant 
to  lose  Dunster's  services,  and  who  no  doubt  hoped  that 
he  might  at  least  consent  to  refrain  from  pressing  his 
antipedobaptist  views. 

It  is  probable  that  Dunster  might  have  retained  his 
position  indefinitely,  even  after  he  had  fully  set  forth  his 
views  in  the  conference  wath  the  ministers,  if  he  could  have 
made  up  his  mind  to  hold  them  in  silence.  But  he  was 
too  completely  mastered  by  his  conception  of  the  evils  of 
infant  baptism  to  be  able,  with  a  good  conscience,  to  re- 
frain from  protesting  against  it  when  occasion  offered. 
About  a  month  after  the  action  of  the  court  referred  to, 
the  rite  of  infant  baptism  was  being  administered  in  the 
church,  and  he  was  moved  in  his  spirit  to  protest  against 
it  as  not  according  to  the  institution  of  Christ,  and  to  an- 
swer the  arguments  that  had  just  been  used  by  the  pastor 


Chap,  v.]  A    HUMBLE  PEl'JTIOX.  1 55 

in  its  favor.  This  action  of  his  was  construed  by  the  au- 
thorities as  a  violation  of  a  law  that  had  been  enacted 
against  disturbances  of  public  worship.  He  must  have 
known  that  this  action  would  result  in  the  severance  of 
his  relations  to  the  college.  He  was  soon  informed  that 
his  services  were  no  longer  required,  and  on  October  24th 
he  offered  a  second  and  final  resignation.  The  position 
was  immediately  offered  to  Charles  Chauncy,  who  had 
raised  considerable  commotion  by  insisting  on  immersion 
as  the  act  of  baptism  and  the  celebration  of  the  Supper  in 
the  evening.  In  the  invitation  it  was  signified  to  him  that 
it  was  expected  and  desired  that  he  would  forbear  to  dis- 
seminate or  publish  these  views.  His  conscience  was  not 
of  so  -firm  a  fiber  as  that  of  the  retiring  president.  He 
was  evidently  eager  for  the  presidency,  and  he  accepted 
it  with  the  conditions  imposed.  Dunster's  petition  to  the 
court,  after  his  final  resignation,  for  an  allowance  for  ex- 
traordinary services  in  order  that  he  might  be  in  a  position 
to  pay  his  debts,  for  the  privilege  of  remaining  in  the  house 
which  he  had  "with  singular  industry  through  great  diffi- 
culties erected,"  "  until  all  accounts  due  to  him  from  the 
Corporation  be  orderly  and  valuably  to  him  your  humble 
petitioner  satisfied  and  paid,"  and  for  freedom  "  according 
to  his  education  and  abilities,  without  all  impeachment, 
molestation,  or  discountenance  from  the  authority  of  this 
colony,"  while  "  walking  piously  and  peaceably,"  to  "  seek 
further  and  vigorously  prosecute  the  spiritual  or  temporal 
weal  of  the  inhabitants  thereof  in  preaching  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  teaching  or  training  up  of  youth,  or  in  any  other 
laudable  or  liberal  calling  as  God  shall  chalk  out  his  way, 
and  when,  and  where,  and  in  what  manner  he  shall  find 
acceptance,"  did  not  receive  favorable  consideration. 

To  have  allowed  extraordinary  compensation  to  a  man 
who,  by  his  own  act,  had  thrown  the  college  affairs  into  a 


156  'I'lIE  BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  i. 

state  of  confusion  and  greatly  embarrassed  the  autliorities, 
especially  when  funds  were  represented  by  a  negative 
rather  than  by  a  positive  quantity,  wouUl  have  been  an 
almost,  unexampled  act  of  generosity.  These  extraordi- 
nary services  had  been  fully  recognized  by  the  overseers, 
and  had  things  gone  on  prosperously  this  recognition 
would  doubtless  have  assumed  some  tangible  form ;  but 
circumstances  had  completely  changed.  To  grant  the 
privilege  of  remaining  in  the  house  for  an  indefinite  period 
would  make  it  to  his  interest  to  delay  a  final  settlement  of 
the  college  accounts,  and  besides  would  be  embarrassing 
to  his  successor.  That  he  should  be  allowed  to  preach  or 
teach  in  the  colony  would  have  been  contrary  to  the  rec- 
ognized principles  of  the  theocracy  which  occasioned  his 
removal  from  the  position  that  he  had  so  ably  filled. 
"  What  other  laudable  or  liberal  calling,  besides  preaching 
and  education  of  youth,  is  intended,  Mr.  Dunster  is  to  ex- 
plain himself." 

The  hardship  involved  in  Dunster's  position  it  is  difficult 
for  us  to  realize.  Without  the  sanction  of  the  authorities 
there  was  nothing  to  which  he  could  turn  his  hand  for  the 
maintenance  of  his  family,  except,  perhaps,  farming  or  mer- 
chandise, for  neither  of  which  he  had  taste  or  training.  It 
is  probable  that  his  wife  did  not  fully  sympathize  with  him 
in  the  position  he  had  taken.  This  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  his  descendants  in  the  generation  following 
seem  all  to  have  been  associated  with  pedobaptist  churches. 
So  reluctant  was  he  to  leave  Cambridge  at  once  that,  six 
days  after  the  unfavorable  reply  of  the  court  to  his  peti- 
tion, he  addressed  to  the  same  body  a  series  of  considera- 
tions, wherein  he  pointed  out  the  extreme  inconvenience 
and  hardship  of  changing  his  residence  at  that  time  of  year 
and  on  so  short  notice,  and  the  importance  of  his  remain- 
ing to  settle  up  the  accounts  of  the  college  and  to  give  to 


CiiAP.  v.]  PROSECUTION,   OR  PERSECUTION?  1 57 

his  successor  the  information  necessary  for  the  successful 
performance  of  some  of  his  duties.  This  lime  the  court 
yielded,  and  he  was  permitted  to  remain  till  the  following 
March  (1655). 

His  trial  for  the  disturbing  of  public  worship  did  not 
take  place  till  April.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  he  had 
rendered  himself  liable  to  prosecution  for  persisting  in  dis- 
turbing the  service  ;  but  that  this  matter  should  have  been 
pressed  at  such  a  time,  after  he  had  suffered  so  greatly  in 
being  deprived  of  his  position  in  the  college,  savors  of  petty 
persecution.  Considering  what  the  theocracy  was,  the  re- 
lation of  the  college  to  the  theocracy,  and  the  profound 
dread  of  Anabaptism,  the  authorities  could  hardly  have 
been  expected  to  retain  the  services  of  a  man  who  had 
assumed  a  hostile  attitude  towards  what  was  looked  upon 
as  a  fundamental  doctrine.  In  fact,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  court  showed  considerable  forbearance  in  not 
dismissing  him  summarily  when  his  views  had  been  fully 
ascertained ;  but  that  he  should  have  been  subjected  to 
the  indignity  of  a  criminal  process,  and  especially  at  such 
a  time,  is  less  excusable. 

Discreditable,  also,  were  the  failure  of  the  court  to  pro- 
vide for  the  prompt  payment  of  the  forty  pounds  which 
the  overseers  found  to  be  strictly  due  him  on  account,  and 
its  entire  ignoring  of  their  recommendation  that  one  hun- 
dred pounds  be  allowed  him  for  extraordinary  services. 

Before  leaving  the  vicinity  of  Boston  we  find  Dunster 
intimately  associated  with  Thomas  Gould,  of  Charlestown, 
whom  we  shall  meet  again  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  Boston,  and  one  of  the  principal  suf- 
ferers for  the  faith  in  connection  with  this  cause. 

Dunster  removed  to  Scituate,  in  the  Plymouth  colony, 
whence  Chauncy  had  been  called  to  be  his  successor  at 
Cambridge.     Whether  Chauncy  is  to  be  credited  with  such 


1^8  THE   BAPTISTS.  [ri:K.  i. 

a  degree  of  generosity  as  would  ha\-e  led  him  to  run 
the  risk  of  compromising  himself  with  the  Massachusetts 
authorities  by  using  his  influence  in  behalf  of  Dunster's 
settlement  at  Scituate,  wo  do  not  know.  The  Plymouth 
colony,  as  we  have  seen,  was  far  in  advance  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  colony  in  the  matter  of  toleration.  Scituate 
probably  excelled  any  other  township  of  Plymouth  in  this 
respect.  John  Lathrop,  who  had  been  pastor  of  the  South- 
wark  (London)  church  founded  by  Henry  Jacob  when  the 
first  division  occurred  (1633),  that  resulted  in  the  formation, 
under  John  Spilsbury's  leadership,  of  the  first  Particular 
Baptist  church  in  P^ngiand,  had  come  to  New  England  tlie 
f«jllowing  year  with  a  portion  of  his  Independent  congre- 
gation, and  had  settled  at  Scituate.  These  were  already 
familiar  with  Baptist  doctrine  and  were  not  likely  to  be 
shocked  by  the  presentation  of  antipedobaptist  views. 
Probably  few  other  churches  in  New  PLngland  would  have 
so  far  yielded  to  Chauncy  in  the  matter  of  immersion  and 
the  evening  celebration  of  the  Supper.  It  is  altogether 
likely  that  Dunster  found  in  the  Scituate  church  a  number 
of  believers  who  thoroughly  sympathized  with  his  antipe- 
dobaptist views.  Our  information  with  respect  to  his  life 
and  labors  at  Scituate  during  the  four  remaining  years  of 
his  career  is  exceedingly  meager.  Deane  (in  his  "  History 
of  Scituate  ")  finds  "  notices  of  him  the  same  autumn  em- 
ployed in  the  ministry,  in  which  he  continued  nearly  five 
years."  The  probability  seems  to  be  against  the  supposi- 
tion that  he  was  regularly  installed  as  pastor  of  the  church. 
He  had  here  the  active  sympathy  and  support  of  such 
noble  men  as  Captain  (afterward  General)  James  Cud- 
worth,  who,  because  he  dared  to  entertain  some  Quakers 
and  to  oppose  their  persecution,  lost  his  position  (1657) 
as  a  member  of  the  court.  Cudworth's  sentiments  in  re- 
-spect  to  this  matter  are  worth  quoting:  "The  antichristian 


Chap,  v.]  INVITED    TO  DUBLIN.  1 59 

persecuting  spirit  is  very  active,  and  that  in  the  powers  of 
this  world.  He  that  will  not  lash,  persecute,  and  punish 
men  that  differ  in  matters  of  religion,  must  not  sit  on  the 
bench,  nor  sustain  any  office  in  the  Commonwealth.  Last 
election,  Mr.  Hatherly  and  myself  were  left  off  the  bench, 
and  myself  discharged  of  my  captainship,  because  I  had 
entertained  some  of  the  Quakers  at  my  house,  thereby 
that  I  might  be  the  better  acquainted  with  their  principles. 
I  thought  it  better  to  do  so  than  with  the  blind  world 
to  censure,  condemn,  rail  at,  and  re\ile  them,  when  they 
neither  saw  their  persons  nor  knew  any  of  their  principles. 
But  the  Quakers  and  I  cannot  close  in  divers  things,  and 
so  I  signified  to  the  Court ;  but  told  them  withal,  that  as 
I  was  no  Quaker,  so  I  would  be  no  persecutor." 

In  a  letter  written  about  a  year  before  Dunster's  death, 
Cudworth  bears  this  testimony  to  his  work  and  worth : 
"  Through  mercy  we  have  yet  among  us  the  worthy  Mr. 
Dunster,  whom  the  Lord  hath  made  boldly  to  bear  testi- 
mony against  the  spirit  of  persecution."  According  to 
Morton  ("  Memorials,"  p.  283),  Dunster"  was  useful  to  op- 
pose their  [the  Quakers']  abominable  opinions,  and  in  de- 
fending the  truth  against  them."  \\\  strongly  opposing 
the  opinions  of  the  Quakers  he  was  at  one  with  Roger 
Williams,  but  we  may  be  sure  that  neither  of  these  great 
and  good  men  countenanced  the  persecution  of  these  re- 
ligious zealots. 

An  incident  in  Dunster's  later  career  should  not  be 
omitted.  In  1656,  the  year  after  his  settlement  at  Scitu- 
ate,  he  received  the  following  letter  from  Edward  Roberts, 
a  Welsh  Baptist  in  government  employ  at  Dublin :  "  Hon- 
ored Friend:  I  am  wholly  a  stranger  to  you  further  than 
as  to  report  which  hath  spread  itself  to  the  rejoicing  of 
many  that  fear  the  Lord,  and  hearing  that  your  portion 
hath   been   to   suffer   in   some   measure  for  the  Cross  of 


l6o  ^'/^^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

Christ,  myself  and  some  other  that  truly  love  you  on  the 
ground  aforesaid  made  it  our  request  to  the  truly  virtuous 
Lord  Deputy  [Henry  Cromwell,  son  of  Oliver]  to  provide 
for  you  in  this  land,  who  readily  embraced  the  same,  and 
ordered  fifty  pounds  for  the  bringing  over  yourself  and 
family,  as  you  may  see  by  a  copy  of  his  Lordship's  and 
the  Council's  enclosed,  with  directions  for  me  to  send  to 
you,  which  moneys  I  have  sent.  .  .  .  You  need  not  fear 
accommodations  here,  though  I  hope  that  will  not  be  )'Our 
chief  motive,  but  rather  honor  of  the  Lord  and  his  great 
name.  You  may  through  mercy  ha\e  free  liberty  of  your 
conscience ;  and  opportunity  of  associating  with  saints  and 
free  publishing  the  Gospel  of  Truth,  which  [is]  greatly 
wanted  amongst  us,  there  being  but  few  able  and  painful 
men  who  make  the  service  of  God  their  sake." 

An  earnest  entreaty  to  confer  not  with  flesh  and  blood, 
but  "  to  be  guided  by  the  call  of  God,"  follows.  The  in- 
vitation was  not  accepted.  For  better  or  for  worse  he 
seems  to  have  joined  himself  to  New  England.  Doubtless 
he  had  business  interests  of  his  own  and  of  his  step-children 
that  would  have  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  leave  the 
country  of  his  adoption.  He  may  also  have  foreseen  that 
the  government  with  whose  cooperation  he  was  invited  to 
L'eland  was  lacking  in  stability.  It  may  be  that  his  de- 
clining health  made  him  reluctant  to  enter  upon  an  under- 
taking in  w^hich  much  would  be  expected  of  him.  Again, 
it  may  be  that  his  wife  withheld  the  encouragement  that 
would  have  been  necessary  to  make  the  change  a  happy  one. 

On  the  same  grounds  we  may  perhaps  account  for  the 
fact  that  he  was  content  to  be  to  the  end  of  his  life  a  pro- 
nounced antipedobaptist  in  a  pedobaptist  church.  Out- 
side of  Providence  and  Rhode  Island  there  was  no  Baptist 
church  in  America.  It  is  probable  that  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  carry  on  Bap- 


CiiAi>.  v.]  DCXSTER'S  DEATH  AXB    WILL.  l6l 

tist  work  even  in  the  Plymouth  colony.  No  doubt  he 
made  up  his  mind  that,  having  borne  his  testimony  and 
suffered  his  martyrdom  on  behalf  of  believers'  baptism 
and  regenerate  church-membership,  and  finding  the  door 
absolutely  closed  in  the  colony  that  he  had  chosen  as  his 
home  against  the  carrying  on  of  distinctively  Baptist  work, 
his  duty  in  respect  to  these  doctrines  would  be  fulfilled 
by  a  continuance  of  his  protest  and  by  engaging  in  such 
Christian  work  as  was  open  to  him.  He  was  sowing  the 
seed.      The  harvest  would  appear  by  and  by. 

His  death  occurred  at  Scituate,  February  27,  1659.  In 
his  will,  drawn  up  the  year  before,  when  disease  had  al- 
ready warned  him  that  the  end  was  near,  he  made  provis- 
ion for  his  burial  at  Cambridge.  His  heart  had  been  there 
during  his  years  of  absence ;  there  he  wished  his  mortal 
remains  to  abide.  President  Chauncy  and  Mr.  Mitchell, 
"  his  reverend  and  trusty  friends  and  brethren,"  he  ap- 
pointed to  appraise  his  library,  and  to  each  he  left  a  num- 
ber of  volumes.  Doubtless  at  his  funeral  his  brethren  who 
had  felt  obliged,  in  the  interests  of  the  theocracy,  to  coop- 
erate in  securing  his  removal  from  the  work  in  which  his 
heart  was  so  deeply  enlisted,  recalled  with  sadness  the 
pathetic  words  contained  in  his  statement  of  considerations 
why  he  should  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  president's 
residence  during  the  winter  after  his  resignation:  "The 
whole  transaction  of  this  business  is  such  which  in  process 
of  time,  when  all  things  come  to  mature  consideration,  may 
very  probably  create  grief  on  all  sides ;  yours  subsequent, 
as  mine  antecedent.     I  am  not  the  man  you  take  me  to  be." 

Mitchell's  elegiac  stanzas  have  been  already  referred  to. 
Harvard  University,  though  she  has  departed  greatly  from 
the  position  of  the  Puritans  and  from  that  of  Dunster,  re- 
gards his  memory  as  one  of  her  chiefest  treasures,  and  her 
historians  have  vied  with  each  other  in  doing  him  honor. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

BAPTIST    CHURCHES    IN    MASSACHUSETTS   TO    1740.^ 

If,  with  most  writers,  we  leave  out  of  consideration  the 
Baptist  meetings  held  by  Obadiah  Holmes  and  his  fellow- 
believers  at  Rehoboth  in  1649,  then  the  first  Baptist  church 
within  the  territory  now  covered  by  Massachusetts  was 
also  the  first  Baptist  church  of  Wales.  The  leader  of  the 
band  of  Welsh  Baptists  who,  in  1663,  took  refuge  in  New 
England  from  persecutions  under  Charles  H.  (1662  on- 
ward) was  John  Myles.  That  they  should  have  made 
their  way  to  the  Plymouth  colony  was  natural  in  view  of 
the  well-known  tolerant  disposition  of  its  authorities.  Re- 
hoboth, where  they  settled,  had  already,  as  we  have  seen, 
witnessed  the  holding  of  Baptist  meetings.  Like  many  of 
the  ministers  who  sought  in  New  England  a  refuge  from 
the  persecutions  of  the  British  authorities,  Myles  had  be- 
hind him  a  long  career  of  distinguished  usefulness.  When 
Obadiah  Holmes  was  gathering  the  Baptist  comxrts  of 
Rehoboth  for  worship,  Myles  and  an  associate,  Thomas 
Proud  by  name,  were  planting  the  Baptist  banner  at 
Ilston,  Glamorganshire,  Wales.  Of  the  early  life  of  Myles 
we  have  only  meager  information.  Born  at  Newton,  in 
Herefordshire,  about  162 1,  we  find  him  a  student  in  the 
University  of  Oxford  in  1636.  He  sprang  from  a  region 
whose  soil  had  been  enriched  by  the  blood  of  martyrs  in 

1  Cf.  Backus,  Ellis,  Mather,  Winthrop,  Morton,  Hutchinson,  Ilubb.ird, 
Felt,  Russell. 

162 


Chap,  vi.]     FIKST  BAPTIST  CHURCH   OF    WALES.  163 

medieval  and  later  times.  It  had  been  the  stronghold  of 
Lollardism  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  it  gloried  in 
being  the  birthplace  or  the  scene  of  the  labors  of  such 
evangelical  heroes  and  martyrs  as  Bradwardine,  Sir  John 
Oldcastle  (Lord  Cobham),  and  Walter  Brute,  in  the  medi- 
eval time,  and  of  John  Penry  in  the  age  of  Ehzabeth. 
The  destitution  of  gospel  privileges  in  Wales  about  1641 
was  truly  appalling.  Evangelical  preachers  had  been 
hunted  out  by  the  Laudian  inquisition,  and  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  ministers  of  the  established  church  were  ig- 
norant and  corrupt.  According  to  Vavasour  Powell,  the 
great  Baptist  evangelist  of  Wales,  "  A  petition  was  sent  to 
the  King  and  Parliament  about  1641,  setting  forth  humbly 
and  truly,  by  many  responsible  persons,  that  after  minutely 
searching  scarcely  were  there  found  as  many  conscientious, 
settled  preachers  in  Wales  as  there  were  counties  in  it." 
Myles  began  his  ministry  about  1645,  under  what  circum- 
stances or  with  what  views  of  truth  we  are  not  informed. 

According  to  the  records  of  the  Baptist  church  at  Ilston, 
which  Myles  and  his  brethren  brought  with  them  to  New 
England,  the  organization  took  place  April  i,  1649.  The 
heading  of  the  first  page  is  said  to  run :  "  Names  of  the 
brethren  and  sisters  who  were  added  to  this  church  from 
the  first  day  of  the  second  month  [April,  N.  S.]  in  1649  to 
the  16th  day  of  the  same  month  in  1650."  The  name 
of  John  Myles  heads  the  list,  and  is  followed  by  that  of 
Thomas  Proud.  It  is  probable  that  Myles  and  Proud  had 
been  baptized  shortly  before  the  inauguration  of  their 
work  at  Ilston  into  the  fellowship  of  a  London  Baptist 
church  (now  meeting  in  the  Glass  House,  Broad  Street), 
whither  they  had  apparently  gone  for  this  purpose.  The 
London  church,  it  is  related,  regarded  the  coming  of  these 
brethren  and  their  proposal  to  enter  upon  evangelistic 
work  in  Wales  as  a  direct  answer  to  their  recent  prayers 


164  '^'^i^   BATTISTS.  [Pek.  i. 

for  the  evangelization  of  that  region.  A  letter  written  by 
the  pastor  of  the  London  church,  dated  Barnstable,  May 
9,  1650,  is  of  interest  in  this  connection:  "Dear  Brother 
Myles:  Having  heard  lately,  by  some  of  your  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  also  by  some  of  the  brethren  in  London, 
of  your  seeking  the  way  of  the  Lord  in  the  participation 
of  the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  in  accordance  with  the 
proper  mode  of  the  Gospel,  we  could  not  less  than  bless 
the  Father  in  your  behalf,  that  you  have  fully  submitted 
to  the  v^^ay  of  truth.  Give  my  most  fervent  love  to  all  the 
church."  The  London  church  long  continued  to  regard 
the  evangelistic  work  of  Myles  and  Proud  as  their  own, 
and  were  always  ready  to  give  the  advice  that  the  Welsh 
evangelists  did  not  fail  to  ask  of  their  more  experienced 
brethren.  It  is  probable  that  the  e\-angelists  received 
material  assistance  from  the  same  source.  \\\  the  Ilston 
church  book  already  referred  to  appears  "  A  brief  report 
of  some  of  the  chief  providences  of  our  Father  towards  us, 
his  poor  and  despised  people,  who  have  by  great  grace 
been  baptized  into  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  to  the 
profession  of  the  Gospel,  and  have  united  in  fellowship 
with  one  another  in  this  church."  The  following  record 
will  be  of  interest:  "We  cannot  do  less  than  admire  the 
unsearchable  wisdom,  power,  and  love  of  God  in  bringing 
about  his  own  purposes,  which  transcend  the  power  and 
understanding  of  the  wisest  of  men.  Thus  to  the  glory  of 
his  great  name  he  dealt,  for  when  there  was  no  company 
or  society  of  prophets  setting  forth  and  preaching  the 
doctrines  of  worship  and  order  and  Gospel  discipline,  ac- 
cording to  primitive  institution,  that  we  ever  heard  of 
since  the  time  of  the  apostasy,  it  pleased  God  to  choose 
this  dark  corner,  to  put  his  name  in  it,  and  to  give  us 
poor,  unworthy  creatures  the  honor  of  being  the  first  in 
all  these  parts  to  observe  the  glorious  ordinance  of  bap- 


Chap,  vi.]  MYLES  A    TESTER.  1 65 

tism,  and  gather  together  the  first  church  of  baptized  be- 
Hevers." 

That  the  zealous  laborers  had  much  to  discourage  them 
in  the  early  stages  of  the  movement,  and  that  they  yet 
had  a  strong  and  abiding  faith,  is  evident  from  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  records  already  quoted:  "It  pleased 
the  Lord  to  give  us  some  signs  of  his  purpose  to  gather 
to  himself  a  people  to  walk  in  fellowship  with  them,  his 
servants ;  but  in  order  that  he  might  be  seen  more  visible 
in  his  work,  he  began  with  two  women,  who  were  baptized 
about  the  beginning  of  the  8th  month  [October],  1649; 
and  thus  teaching  us  not  to  despise  the  day  of  small 
things,  nor  to  judge  the  work  of  God  according  to  appear- 
ance or  human  probability.  For  when  these  feeble  creat- 
ures were  baptized,  there  was  not  a  strong  probability 
that  one  more  would  be  added  to  us ;  yet  the  Lord  went 
on  and  called  four  more  women  before  one  man  offered 
himself."  But  tlie  community  was  ripe  for  such  gospel 
efforts,  and  during  the  year  following  forty-six  were  bap- 
tized into  the  fellowship  of  the  little  band  of  believers.  \\\ 
eleven  years  the  number  of  members  had  increased  to  two 
hundred  and  sixty-three.  The  labors  of  Myles  and  his 
associates  extended  over  a  considerable  territory,  and 
meetings  must  be  held  in  several  localities  in  order  to 
accommodate  the  people.  The  entire  church,  howexer, 
were  expected  to  meet  together  at  Ilston  on  the  first  day  of 
every  three  weeks  for  the  breaking  of  bread.  A  number 
of  other  preachers  were  soon  raised  up  in  connection  with 
the  labors  of  Myles  and  Proud,  and  by  165  i  there  were 
four  churches  in  fellowship. 

The  name  of  Myles  appears  as  one  of  the  testers  (or 
triers)  in  connection  with  a  parliameiitary  "  Act  for  the 
Better  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Wales,"  signed  Feb- 
ruary 22,  1649.     The  aim  of  the  act  was  the  rooting  out 


1 66  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

cf  the  corrupt  and  worthless  ministers  who  abounded  and 
the  supplying  of  the  principality  with  worthy  ministers. 
In  a  few  years  the  religious  aspect  of  Wales  had  become 
completely  changed  owing  to  the  successful  working  of 
this  measure,  which  from  a  Baptist  point  of  view  was  by 
no  means  an  ideal  arrangement,  but  which,  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  church  endowments  and  rates  were  to 
be  maintained  and  administered  under  the  direction  of 
the  state,  was  a  practical  necessity.  Myles  was  far  from 
being  alone  among  Baptist  ministers  in  consenting  to  act 
in  such  capacity.  Tombes,  Jessey,  and  Dyke  were  among 
Cromwell's  triers  for  England,  and  the  first  two  at  least 
ministered  to  beneficed  churches. 

It  should  be  observed  that  Myles  and  Proud  were  by 
no  means  the  first  Baptists  in  Wales.  Vavasour  Powell 
and  Cradock  had  been  for  some  years  evangelizing  in 
Wales,  but  as  they  were  open  communionists  the  results 
of  their  work  had  appeared  in  mixed  rather  than  in  Baptist 
churches.  Baptist  principles  flourished  in  Wales,  and 
Welsh  Baptists  have  long  been  noted  for  their  consistency 
and  devotion. 

The  Act  of  Uniformity  of  1662  drove  Myles  from  his 
pastorate.  He  is  numbered  among  the  two  thousand 
ejected  ministers,  and  as  he  had  acted  under  the  Crom- 
wellian  government  in  the  capacity  of  trier  for  Wales,  so 
he  seems  to  have  received  support  from  the  parish  reve- 
nues that  had  earlier  been  enjoyed  by  the  corrupt  minister 
of  the  parish.  We  would  not  be  understood  to  justify  his 
acquiescence  in  this  state-church  arrangement;  but  it  is 
desirable  that  we  should  understand  the  real  relations  of 
things  in  order  that  we  may  appreciate  the  situation  of 
Myles  and  a  number  of  other  excellent  Baptist  brethren  of 
that  time.  The  case  seems  to  have  been  something  like 
this:  the  Cromwellian  government  had  not  confiscated  the 


Chap,  vi.]  MYLES  HOLDS  A    BENEFICE.  1 67 

church  endowments  or  abohshed  the  old  methods  of  rais- 
ing church  revenues ;  the  great  majority  of  the  residents 
in  the  parish  where  he  labored  desired  his  services  in  the 
ministry ;  his  ministry  was  acceptable  to  the  state-church 
authorities;  as  things  were,  the  members  of  the  parish 
must  contribute  through  the  legal  channels,  and  the  in- 
come from  endowments,  if  there  were  any,  must  pass 
through  the  hands  of  the  government  authorities.  Myles 
and  his  Baptist  parishioners  might  have  said,  and  perhaps 
ought  to  have  said,  "  No,  we  will  have  absolutely  nothing 
to  do  with  a  state-church  arrangement;  we  will  pay  our 
church  rates  if  we  must ;  we  will  let  the  government  make 
what  use  it  pleases  of  these  and  of  the  income  of  the  par- 
ish endowments ;  we  will  not  submit  to  having  the  qualifi- 
cations of  our  pastor  passed  upon  by  the  triers  appointed 
by  the  government — much  less  shall  our  pastor  counte- 
nance the  continuance  of  the  state-church  system  by  sit- 
ting on  the  Board  of  Triers ;  besides  paying  under  protest 
what  the  state  may  exact  we  will,  as  pastor  and  people, 
pursue  the  New  Testament  plan  of  direct  dependence  on 
the  church  on  the  one  hand,  and  voluntary  support  of  the 
gospel  ministry  on  the  other."  This  would  have  been 
heroic,  but  the  supreme  importance  of  the  voluntary  sys- 
tem and  the  deadly  evils  of  all  state-churchism  seem  not 
to  have  impressed  men  like  Myles,  Tombes,  Dyke,  and 
Jessey,  as  they  impressed  many  Baptists  in  the  seventeenth 
century  and  as  they  have  impressed  nearly  all  Baptists 
from  that  time  onward. 

With  a  company  of  his  Welsh  brethren,  Myles  made 
his  way  to  Rehoboth,  as  has  already  been  stated,  and  was 
not  slow  in  instituting  Baptist  worship  and  ordinances  in 
his  new  home.  With  him  were  associated,  and  joined  by 
solemn  covenant,  James  Brown,  Nicholas  Tanner,  Joseph 
Carpenter,  John  Butterworth,  Eldad  Kingsley,  and  Benja- 


1 68  THE   BAFTISl'S.  [Pkr.  i. 

mill  Alby.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  coercive  measures 
were  undertaken  against  the  new  organization  until  July, 
1667,  when  Myles  and  Brown  were  arraigned  before  the 
court  "  for  their  breach  of  order  in  setting  up  of  a  public 
meeting  without  the  knowledge  and  approbation  of  the 
Court,  to  the  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  place,"  and 
"  are  fined  each  of  them  five  pounds,  and  Mr.  Tanner  the 
sum  of  one  pound,  and  we  judge  that  their  continuance  at 
Rehoboth,  being  very  prejudicial  to  the  peace  of  that 
church  and  that  town,  may  not  be  allowed;  and  do  there- 
fore order  all  persons  concerned  therein  wholly  to  desist 
from  the  said  meeting  in  that  place  or  township,  within 
this  month.  Yet  in  case  they  shall  remove  their  meeting 
unto  some  other  place,  where  they  may  not  prejudice  any 
other  church,  and  shall  gi\'e  us  aiiy  reasonable  satisfaction 
respecting  their  principles,  we  do  not  know  but  they  may 
be  permitted  b}-  this  government  so  to  do." 

It  is  evident  that  the  Baptist  work  was  being  pushed 
with  some  \-igor  and  had  become  a  matter  of  alarm  to  the 
pastor  of  the  church  of  the  standing  order.  It  is  further 
evident  that  the  authoiities  had  ceased  to  regard  antipedo- 
baptism  with  the  horror  of  the  earlier  time.  As  compared 
with  the  attitude  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  authorities 
before  and  after,  the  last  sentence  of  this  pronouncement 
is  toleration  itself.  Massachusetts  would  have  imprisoned 
and  banished  Myles  and  his  associates.  Plymouth  simply 
requires  them  to  remove  to  a  convenient  distance  from 
the  church  of  the  standing  order,  so  as  not  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  church  and  town.  In  October  of  the  same  year 
the  court  set  apart  for  them  a  large  bod)-  of  land  near  the 
Rhode  Island  frontier,  which  they  named  Swansea,  in  com- 
memoration of  Swansea,  near  Ilston,  their  Welsh  home. 
The  land- grant  was  made  in  the  names  of  Captain  Willet 
and   Mr.  Paine,  who  were  pedobaptists,  and  three  of  the 


Chap,  vi.]  SIWIXSEA    EXCLi'SIVEXESS.  1 69 

Baptist  brethren.      Captain  Willet  proposed   to  the  other 
members  of  the   new  township:    "  i.   That  no  erroneous 
person  be  admitted  into  the  township  either  as  an  inhabit- 
ant or  sojourner.      2.  That  no  man  of  an  evil  behavior  or 
contentious  person,  etc.,  be  admitted.      3.   That  none  may 
be  admitted  that  may  become  a  charge  to  the  place."      It 
is  somewhat    humiliating  to  Baptists  to   find  the   church 
under  Myles  consenting  to  these  proposals,  with  certain 
explications.     As  it  is  the  aim  of  this  history  to  relate  the 
facts  precisely  as  they  occurred,  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
quote  the  terms  in  which   they  accepted  the  proposal  to 
exclude  all  erroneous  persons :  "  That  the   first  proposal 
relating  to  the  non-admission  of  erroneous  persons  may  be 
only  understood  under  the  following  explications,  viz.  :  (i) 
of  such  as  hold  damnable  heresies,  inconsistent  with  the 
faith  of  the  gospel ;    as,  to  deny  the  Trinity,  or  any  per- 
son therein;  the  deity  or  sinless  humanity  of  Christ,  or  the 
union  of  both  natures  in  him,  or  his  full  satisfaction  to  the 
divine  justice  of  all  his  elect,  by  his  active  or  passive  obe- 
dience, or  his  resurrection,  ascension  into  heaven,  inter- 
cession, or  his  second  coming  personally  to  judgment;  or 
else  to  deny  the   truth  or  divine  authority  of  the  Script- 
ures, or  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  or  to  maintain  any 
merit  of  works,  consubstantiation,  transubstantiation,  giv- 
ing divine  adoration  to  'any  creature,  or  any  other  anti- 
christian  doctrine  directly  opposing  the  priestly,  prophet- 
ical, or  kingly  offices  of  Christ,  or  any  part  thereof;  (2)  or 
such  as  hold  such  opinions  as  are  inconsistent  with  the 
well-being  of  the  place,  as  to  deny  the  magistrate's  power 
to  punish  evil-doers  as  well  as  to  encourage  those  that  do 
well,  or  to  deny  the  first  day  of  the  week  to  be  observed 
by  divine  institution  as  the  Lord's  Day  or  Christian  Sab- 
bath, or  to  deny  the  giving  of  honor  to  whom  honor  is 
due,  or  to  oppose  those  civil  respects  that  are  usually  per- 


I  70  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

formed  according  to  the  laudable  customs  of  our  nation 
each  to  other,  as  bowing  the  knee  or  body,  etc.,  or  else  to 
deny  the  office,  use,  or  authority  of  the  ministry  or  a  com- 
fortable maintenance  to  be  due  to  them  from  such  as  par- 
take of  their  teachings,  or  to  speak  reproachfully  of  any 
of  the  churches  of  Christ  in  the  country,  or  of  any  such 
other  churches  as  are  of  the  same  common  faith  with  us 
or  them.  We  desire  that  it  be  also  understood  and  de- 
clared that  this  is  not  understood  of  any  holding  any  opin- 
ion different  from  others  in  any  disputable  point,  yet  in 
controversy  among  the  godly  learned,  the  belief  thereof 
not  being  essentially  necessary  to  salvation  ;  such  as  pedo- 
baptism,  antipedobaptism,  church  discipline,  or  the  like; 
but  that  the  minister  or  ministers  of  the  said  town  may 
take  their  liberty  to  baptize  infants  or  grown  persons  as 
the  Lord  shall  persuade  their  consciences,  and  so  also  the 
inhabitants  take  their  liberty  to  bring  their  children  to 
baptism  or  to  forbear." 

Here  we  see  a  result  of  Myles's  training  in  connection 
with  the  state-church  system  of  the  Commonwealth  and 
the  Protectorate.  He  had  failed  to  grasp  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  absolute  liberty  of  conscience  which  the  mass 
of  antipedobaptists  from  the  Reformation  time  onward 
had  consistently  advocated  and  practiced.  If  this  docu- 
ment mean  anything,  it  means  that  Myles  and  his  Baptist 
brethren  would  have  cooperated  with  the  pedobaptist  in- 
habitants of  the  township  of  Swansea  in  excluding,  by 
forcible  means  if  necessary,  Roman  Catholics,  Lutherans, 
Anglicans,  Arminians,  Socinians  of  all  classes,  Sabbata- 
rians, and  Quakers.  Roger  Williams  would  have  been 
almost  as  imacceptable  in  Swansea  as  he  had  been  thirty 
years  before  to  the  Massachusetts  Bay  authorities,  and 
few,  if  any,  of  the  Baptists  we  have  encountered  in  New 
Enorland  would  ha\e  been  able  to  endure  the  test.     There 


Chap.  VI.]  A    NEW  PASTOR    WANTED.  171 

is  fortunately  no  case  on  record  in  which  the  vicious  prin- 
ciple of  this  document  was  practically  applied.  Doubtless 
contact  with  the  disciples  of  Roger  Williams  and  John 
Clarke  in  the  neighboring  churches  of  Providence  and 
Newport  taught  these  anomalous  Baptists  the  way  of  the 
Lord  more  perfectly.  It  may  be  that  anxiety  to  escape 
persecution  led  them  to  express  themselves  more  strongly 
on  these  matters  than  their  own  best  judgment  would 
have  approved  or  than  they  would  have  been  willing  to 
carry  out  in  practice.  But  this  possible  explanation  is  as 
little  to  their  credit  as  their  failure  to  apprehend  a  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  denomination. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  the  defect  mentioned,  the  Swan- 
sea church  w^as  greatly  prospered,  the  entire  community 
remaining  Baptist  until  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  (Backus,  ii.,  433.)  By  the  middle  of  1681  Myles 
had  grown  "  very  aged  and  feeble,"  and  was  "  often  in- 
capable of  his  ministerial  work."  The  brethren  wrote  an 
earnest  plea  to  the  Baptist  ministers  of  London  for  "  an 
able  man  to  come  over,"  for  whom  they  "  conceive  there 
is  a  prospect  of  good  encouragement,  ...  in  that  there 
seems  to  be  an  apparent  and  general  apostasy  among  the 
churches  who  have  professed  themselves  Congregational 
in  this  land;  whereby  many  have  their  eyes  opened,  by 
seeing  the  declension  and  confusion  that  is  among  them." 
There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  it  was  not  wholly  the  feeble- 
ness of  the  pastor  that  led  to  this  application.  The  pastor 
was  old  and  feeble,  certainly,  but  it  is  probable  that  some 
feeling  had  arisen  between  pastor  and  people.  \\\  1682  he 
preached  for  a  while  in  Boston,  and  a  report  gained  cur- 
rency that  was  cast  into  the  teeth  of  Boston  brethren  by 
the  authorities  in  this  form :  "  Behold  your  great  Doctor, 
Mr.  Myles  of  Swanzey,  for  he  now  leaves  his  profession 
and  is  come  away,  and  will  not  teach  his  people  any  more, 


Ijo  THE   BAP'J'/S'IS.  [I'EK.  I. 

because  he  is  like  to  perish  for  want,  and  his  gathered 
church  and  people  will  not  help  him."  The  effort  to  se- 
cure a  pastor  in  England  proved  a  failure,  and  no  doubt 
the  differences  between  the  old  pastor  and  his  flock  were 
adjusted.  He  died  as  pastor  of  the  church  February  3, 
1683,  and  his  memory  remains  fragrant  in  the  community 
where  his  labors  were  so  fruitful.  He  was  succeeded  after 
a  considerable  interval  by  Samuel  Luther,  who  had  been 
for  some  time  a  member  of  the  church  and  had  represented 
Swansea  in  the  colonial  legislature.  He  was  ordained  to 
the  pastorate  July  22,  1685,  elders  from  the  Boston  church 
assisting.  He  remained  pastor  till  his  death,  in  i/i/-  The 
next  pastor  was  Ephraim  Wheaton,  who  for  thirteen  years 
had  assisted  Luther  in  his  ministerial  labors.  The  church 
greatly  prospered  under  Wheaton's  ministry.  During  the 
five  years  beginning  with  171S,  fifty  were  received  into 
the  church,  and  before  his  death,  in  1734,  the  membership 
had  risen  to  two  hundred.  His  successor,  Samuel  Max- 
well, was  noted  for  his  piety  and  zeal,  but  having  adopted 
Sabbatarian  view\s,  and  being  thought  unsteady  in  other 
points  of  Baptist  doctrine,  he  was  dismissed  from  the  church 
in  1739.  The  next  pastor  was  popular,  but  proved  un- 
worthy, and  the  next  was  so  unacceptable  that  the  church 
greatly  declined,  many  members  withdrawing  to  other 
churches  which  had  been  organized  in  the  neighborhood. 
But  a  bright  future  was  before  the  church  in  the  period 
to  follow,  in  connection  with  the  Great  Awakening. 

The  new  charter,  under  William  and  Mary,  granted  in 
1691,  provided  for  "liberty  of  conscience  in  the  worship 
of  God  to  all  Christians,  except  Papists."  "  Liberty  of 
conscience  "  was  interpreted  by  the  Massachusetts  author- 
ities in  such  a  way  as  to  allow  of  the  taxation  of  dissenters 
for  the  support  of  ministers  of  the  standing  order. 

In  1692  an  act  was  passed  for  the  support  of  ministers. 


CUAV.  \i.J        JCy   FOR   SLPFORT   OF  MJXISTERS.  I  73 

As  revised  in  1693,  it  provided  "  that  each  respective  gath- 
ered church,  in  any  town  or  place  within  this  Province, 
that  at  any  time  shall  be  in  want  of  a  minister,  such  church 
shall  have  the  power,  according  to  the  directions  given  in 
the  Word  of  God,  to  choose  their  own  minister"  ;  but  be- 
fore the  settlement  could  be  consummated  the  concurrence 
of  a  majority  of  voters  in  town  affairs  must  be  secured. 
After  such  concurrence,  "  all  the  inhabitants  and  ratable 
estates  lying  within  such  town,  or  part  of  a  town,  or  place 
limited  by  law  for  upholding  the  public  worship  of  God, 
shall  be  obliged  to  pay  in  proportion  towards  the  minister's 
settlement  and  support."  Boston  was  excepted  from  the 
operation  of  this  law,  but  otherwise  its  provisions  were 
made  compulsory  by  a  requirement  that  the  county  courts 
should  summon  and  heavily  fine  the  selectmen  or  other 
officers  of  any  town  failing  to  comply.  It  was  not  long 
before  the  Bristol  Court  issued  a  warrant  requiring  the 
town  of  Swansea  to  choose  a  minister  accordirig  to  law. 
As  the  Baptist  church  was  the  only  church  in  the  town, 
and  as  a  large  majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  Baptist  in 
sentiment,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  securing  for  the  pastor 
the  C(Micurrence  of  a  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  town. 
It  is  humiliating  to  find  that  after  a  short  delay  the  requi- 
sition was  complied  with,  and  the  report  was  sent  to  the 
court  that  Samuel  Luther  had  been  chosen  pastor  accord- 
ing to  law\  Whether  the  church  allowed  a  general  assess- 
ment for  the  support  of  its  pastor  to  be  carried  out  we  are 
not  informed.  As  in  the  laying  out  of  the  township,  which 
had  been  publicly  granted  to  a  company  the  majority  of 
whom  were  Baptists,  certain  lots  had  been  set  apart  for  the 
support  of  public  worship,  it  may  be  that  a  general  assess- 
ment was  not  required. 

The  law  referred  to  was   in  force   until  1728,  when  an 
act  was  passed  "  to  exempt  persons  commonly  called  Ana- 


1 74  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  i. 

baptists,  and  those  called  Quakers,  .  .  .  from  being  taxed 
for  and  towards  the  support  of  "  ministers.  This  act  at 
first  exempted  from  poll-taxes  only,  and  it  applied  only 
to  persons  living  within  five  miles  of  their  meeting-place. 
In  1729  it  was  modified  to  include  estate-taxes.  The  act 
was  to  be  valid  for  five  years  only.  At  the  expiration  of 
this  term  its  provisions  were  renewed,  with  the  require- 
ment that  assessors  should  make  lists  of  Anabaptists  in 
each  community  and  that  these  lists  should  be  subject  to  in- 
spection and  to  correction  on  the  presentation  of  certificates 
signed  by  "two  principal  members  of  that  persuasion." 
As  no  penalty  was  affixed  to  neglect  of  compliance  with 
the  law  on  the  part  of  the  assessors.  Baptists  were  put  to 
much  inconvenience,  annoyance,  and  expense  in  securing 
the  exemption  provided  for. 

The  history  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Boston  next 
demands  attention.  It  is  certain  that  there  \\'ere  a  number 
of  Baptists  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  at  an  early  date. 
We  have  seen  that  in  1655  Thomas  Gould,  of  Charlestown, 
had  fellowship  with  President  Dunster  in  antipedobaptism, 
and  that  meetings  were  already  held  at  the  house  of  the 
former  in  this  interest.  Such  meetings  were  doubtless 
kept  up  with  a  considerable  degree  of  regularity  from  that 
time  until  1665,  when  (May  28)  Thomas  Gould,  Thomas 
Osburne,  Edward  Drinker,  and  John  George  were  baptized, 
and  united  with  Richard  Goodall,  William  Turner,  Robert 
Lambert,  Mary  Goodall,  and  Mary  Newel,  who  had  been 
previously  baptized,  most  or  all  of  them  in  England,  "  in  a 
solemn  covenant,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to 
walk  in  fellowship  and  communion  together,  in  the  prac- 
tice of  all  the  holy  appointments  of  Christ,  which  he  had 
or  should  further  make  known  to  them."  The  Goodalls 
had  been  members  of  William  Kiffin's  church  in  London, 
Lambert  and  Turner  of  Mr.  Stead's  church  in  Dartmouth: 


Chai'.  \i.]     first  baptist  CHURCH  OF  BOSTOX.  \  75 

Gould  and  Osburne  withdrew  from  the  church  of  the  stand- 
ing order  in  Charlestown.  According  to  a  record  made 
at  the  time  by  the  Roxbury  church  and  pubHshed  in  an 
almanac,  "  the  Anabaptists  gathered  themselves  into  a 
church,  prophesied  one  by  one,  and  some  one  among  them 
administered  the  Lord's  Supper  after  he  was  regularly  ex- 
communicated by  the  church  at  Charlestown ;  they  also 
set  up  a  lecture  at  Drinker's  house  once  a  fortnight." 

Much  was  made  of  the  fact  that  the  new  organization 
admitted  as  members  and  appointed  to  official  positions 
those  who  had  been  excommunicated  by  the  churches  of 
the  standing  order.  The  "  moral  scandals  "  of  which  Cot- 
ton Mather  speaks  as  the  ground  for  their  excommunica- 
tion were  of  no  more  serious  nature  than  somewhat  demon- 
strative protestations  against  the  administration  of  infant 
baptism,  and  absenting  themselves  from  the  meetings  of 
the  church.  It  seems  somewhat  gratuitous  to  charge  them 
with  schismatic  organization  of  a  new  church,  and  to  seek 
to  bring  the  schismatic  organization  into  further  contempt 
by  making  the  incipient  stages  of  the  schism  a  ground  for 
charges  of  immoral  conduct.  The  officers  of  the  Charles- 
town church  certainly  deserve  credit  for  the  patience  and 
perseverance  with  which  they  labored  with  Gould.  Ac- 
cording to  Wlllard,  a  contemporary  opponent  of  the  new 
church  (Backus,  i.,  289):  "The  church  in  much  tender- 
ness waited  upon  him,  and  proceeded  not  to  excommuni- 
cation, but  tried  with  admonition  upon  admonition,  and 
that  by  the  space  of  seven  or  eight  years ;  nor  was  he 
excommunicated  till  (ha\-ing  left  his  own)  he  joined  to 
another  society,  v/ithout  the  church's  leave,  or  once  asking 
it;  and  now^  also  being  twice  sent  for  by  the  church,  he 
disclaimed  their  authority  over  him.  .  .  .  He  did  (while 
under  admonition)  neglect  public  worship,  and  gather  a 
priv^ate  meeting  on   the  Sabbath  to  his   house.      He  did 


I  76  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

wickedly  slight  the  admonition  of  the  church,  declaring 
that  they  had,  by  it,  discharged  him  of  all  relation  to  them." 

Substantially  the  same  is  the  charge  against  Osburne. 

The  occasion  of  Gould's  first  protest  against  infant  bap- 
tism was  the  birth  of  a  child  in  1655.  His  own  account 
of  the  matter  is  of  interest :  "  It  having  been  a  long  time 
a  scruple  to  me  about  infant  baptism,  God  was  pleased  at 
last  to  make  it  clear  to  me,  by  the  rule  of  the  gospel,  that 
children  were  not  capable  nor  fit  subjects  for  such  an  ordi- 
nance, because  Christ  gave  this  commission  to  his  apostles, 
first  to  preach  to  make  them  disciples,  and  then  to  baptize 
them,  which  infants  were  not  capable  of;  so  that  I  durst 
not  bring  fordi  my  child  to  be  partaker  of  it."  The  de- 
tails of  the  ecclesiastical  processes  by  which  it  was  sought 
to  win  this  Anabaptist  heretic  from  the  error  of  his  way, 
as  reported  by  Gould  himself,  are  picturesque  and  in  some 
cases  piquant;  but  nothing  new  was  added  to  the  argu- 
ments for  and  against  the  baptism  of  infants.  Repeated 
conferences  led  to  no  change  of  sentiment  on  either  side. 
What  followed  these  conferences  may  be  best  given  in 
Gould's  own  language :  "  Now  after  this,  considering  with 
myself  what  the  Lord  would  have  me  to  do ;  not  likely  to 
join  with  any  of  the  churches  of  New  England  any  more, 
and  so  to  be  without  the  ordinances  of  Christ ;  in  the  mean 
time  God  sent  out  of  Old  England  some  who  were  Bap- 
tists ;  we,  consulting  together  what  to  do,  sought  the  Lord 
to  direct  us,  and  taking  counsel  of  other  friends  who  dwelt 
among  us,  who  were  able  and  godly,  they  gave  us  counsel 
to  congregate  ourselves  together;  and  so  we  did,  being 
nine  of  us,  to  walk  in  the  order  of  the  gospel  according  to 
the  rule  of  Christ,  yet  knowing  that  it  was  a  breach  of  the 
law  of  this  country  ;  that  we  had  not  the  approbation  of 
magistrates  and  ministers,  for  that  we  suffered  the  penalty 
of  that  law,  when  we  were  called  before  them." 


Chap.  VI.]  CONFESSIOX  OF  FAITH.  1 7/ 

Shortly  after  the  oroanization  of  the  new  church,  Gould 
was  solemnly  summoned  to  appear  before  the  church  to 
which  he  had  formerly  belonged  on  the  following  Lord's 
Day.  He  repudiated  any  right  of  the  church  to  demand 
his  presence,  and  declined  to  obey  the  summons.  At  the 
entreaty  of  some  of  his  friends,  who  feared  that  some  godly 
members  of  the  church  might,  in  case  of  his  failure  to  state 
the  grounds  of  his  action  in  public  assembly,  ignorantly 
join  in  his  excommunication  and  thus  commit  sin,  he  agreed 
to  be  present  on  a  subsequent  Lord's  Day.  The  result 
was  the  excommunication  of  such  Baptists  as  had  been 
members  of  the  church. 

In  September,  1665,  they  were  arraigned  before  the 
Court  of  Assistants.  They  exhibited  to  the  court  a  care- 
fully written  confession  of  faith.  Objection  was  raised  to 
the  following  article,  on  the  ground  that  it  excludes  from 
visible  saintship  all  unbaptized  persons:  "  Christ's  commis- 
sion to  his  disciples  is  to  teach  and  baptize,  and  those  who 
gladly  receive  the  word  and  are  baptized  are  saints  by 
calling,  and  fit  matter  for  a  visible  church."  "  If  any  take 
this  to  be  heresy,"  the  confession  concludes,  "  then  do  we, 
with  the  apostle,  confess,  that  after  the  way  which  they 
call  heresy,  we  worship  God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  believing  all  things  that  are  written  in  the  law  and 
the  prophets  and  apostles."  As  the  accused  showed  no 
disposition  to  yield  to  the  authorities,  the  case  was  referred 
to  the  General  Court  to  be  held  the  next  month  (Octo- 
ber 1 1).  The  sentence  of  the  court  reads  as  follows  :  "  This 
Court,  taking  the  premises  into  consideration,  do  judge 
meet  to  declare  that  the  said  Gould  and  company  are  no 
orderly  church  assembly,  and  that  they  stand  justly  con- 
victed of  high  presumption  against  the  Lord  and  his  holy 
appointments,  as  also  the  peace  of  this  government,  against 
which  this  Court  doth  account  themselves  bound  to  God, 


1 78  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

his  truth,  and  his  churches  here  planted,  to  bear  their  testi- 
mony, and  do  therefore  sentence  the  said  Gould,  Osburne, 
Drinker,  Turner,  and  George,  such  of  them  as  are  freemen, 
to  be  disfranchised,  and  all  of  them,  upon  conviction,  be- 
fore any  one  magistrate  or  Court,  of  their  further  proceed- 
ings herein,  to  be  committed  to  prison  until  the  General 
Court  shall  take  further  order  with  them." 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  Baptists  continued  their 
meetings.  On  April  17,  1666,  they  were  summoned  be- 
fore the  County  Court  at  Cambridge,  and  Gould,  Osburne, 
and  George  were  fined  four  pounds  each  and  required  to 
give  bond  for  their  appearance  at  the  next  Court  of  As- 
sistants in  the  sum  of  twenty  pounds  each.  Refusing  to 
comply  with  these  requirements,  they  were  cast  into  pris- 
on. The  Court  of  Assistants  required  them  to  pay  their 
fines  and  gave  them  to  understand  that  the  previous  order 
was  to  "  stand  in  full  force."  The  fines  seem  to  have  been 
paid  and  the  prisoners  liberated.  But  annoyances  of  this 
kind  continued.  In  March,  1668,  Gould  appealed  from 
the  County  Court  to  the  Court  of  Assistants,  with  the  re- 
sult that  the  jury  "  found  for  the  plaintiff,  reversion  of  the 
former  judgment."  The  court  refused  to  accept  this  ver- 
dict and  sent  the  jury  out  for  further  consideration.  A 
qualified  statement  was  returned,  on  the  basis  of  which  the 
decision  of  the  lowxr  court  was  sustained. 

In  connection  with  these  procedures  the  governor  and 
council  arranged  for  a  meeting  of  the  principal  ministers 
along  with  the  governor  and  magistrates,  "  before  whom 
.  .  .  the  above-said  persons  and  their  company  shall  have 
liberty,  freely  and  fully,  in  open  assembly,  to  present  their 
grounds  ...  in  an  orderly  debate  of  this  following  ques- 
tion:  Whether  it  be  justifiable  by  the  word  of  God,  for 
these  persons  and  their  company  to  depart  from  commun- 
ion with  these  churches,  and  to  set  up  an  assembly  here 


Chap.  VI.]  A    DISFUTATIOX.  1 79 

in  the  way  of  Anabaptism,  and  whether  such  a  practice  is 
to  be  allowed  by  the  government  of  this  jurisdiction?  To 
Thomas  Gould:  You  are  hereby  required  in  his  Majesty's 
name,  according  to  the  order  of  the  Council  above  written, 
to  give  notice  thereof  to  John  Farnum,  senior,  Thomas 
Osburne,  and  the  company,  and  you  and  they  are  alike 
required  to  give  your  attendance."  In  this  disputation 
Gould  and  his  associates  had  the  active  sympathy  and 
support  of  the  Newport  chutch,  three  of  whose  leading 
members,  William  Hiscox,  Joseph  Torrey,  and  Samuel 
Hubbard,  were  delegated  by  the  church  to  be  present,  and 
arrived  three  days  before  the  event.  The  result  was  as 
we  have  learned  to  expect  in  all  such  cases :  the  party  in 
power  considered  themselves  victorious,  and  the  weaker 
party,  for  refusing  to  see  the  force  of  the  arguments  of 
their  opponents,  were  branded  as  obstinate  heretics.  The 
record  reminds  one  strongly  of  the  protocols  of  sixteenth- 
century  Anabaptist  processes  in  Catholic  Austria  or  Prot- 
estant Germany  :  "Whereas,Thomas  Gould,  William  Turner, 
and  John  Farnum,  senior,  obstinate  and  turbulent  Anabap- 
tists, have  some  time  since  combined  themselves  with  others 
in  a  pretended  church  estate,  without  the  knowledge  and 
approbation  of  the  authority  here  established,  to  the  great 
grief  and  offense  of  the  godly  orthodox  ;  .  .  .  the  said  per- 
sons did  in  open  Court  assert  their  former  practice  to  have 
been  according  to  the  mind  of  God,  and  that  nothing  that 
they  had  heard  had  convinced  them  to  the  contrary  ;  which 
practice,  being  also  otherwise  circumstanced  with  making 
infant  baptism  a  nullity,  and  thereby  making  us  all  to 
be  unbaptized  persons,  and  so  consequently  no  regular 
churches,  ministry,  or  ordinances,  as  also  renouncing  all  our 
churches,  as  being  so  bad  and  corrupt  that  they  are  not 
fit  to  be  held  communion  with  ;  denying  to  submit  to 
the  government  of  Christ  in  the  church,  and  entertaining 


l8o  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

of  those  who  are  under  church  censure,  thereby  making 
the  discipHne  of  Christ  to  be  of  none  effect,  and  mani- 
festly tending  to  the  disturbance  and  destruction  of  these 
churches, — opening  the  door  for  ah  sorts  of  abominations 
to  come  in  among  us,  to  the  disturbance  not  only  of  eccle- 
siastical enjoyments,  but  also  contempt  of  our  civil  order 
and  the  authority  here  established,  .  .  .  which  duty  to  God 
and  the  country  doth  oblige  us  to  prevent,  by  using  the 
most  compassionate  effectual  means  to  attain  the  same; 
all  of  which  considering,  together  with  the  danger  of  dis- 
seminating their  errors,  and  encouraging  presumptuous 
irregularities  by  their  example,  should  they  continue  in 
this  jurisdiction;  this  Court  do  judge  it  necessary  that 
they  be  removed  to  some  other  part  of  this  country,  or 
elsewhere,  and  accordingly  doth  order  that  the  said  Thom- 
as Gould,  William  Turner,  and  James  Farnum,  senior,  do, 
before  the  20th  of  July  next,  remove  themselves  out  of 
this  jurisdiction." 

The  sentence  further  provides  for  their  imprisonment 
without  bail  or  mainprise  in  case  they  should  be  found  in 
the  jurisdiction  after  the  time  fixed;  and  all  officers  con- 
cerned are  especially  ordered  to  see  to  the  execution  of 
the  sentence.  The  church  is  forbidden  to  assemble  again 
on  any  pretense  whatever,  and  imprisonment  and  banish- 
ment are  made  the  penalty  of  such  meeting. 

If  we  would  rightly  appreciate  the  significance  of  this 
determined  effort  of  the  Baptists  to  embody  their  views  in 
church  organization  and  church  life,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
tiie  equally  determined  effort  of  the  Massachusetts  author- 
ities to  crush  the  movement  in  its  very  inception,  on  the 
other,  we  must  call  to  mind  the  stage  of  British  history 
that  has  been  reached.  Since  the  banishment  of  Roger 
Williams  more  than  thirty  momentous  years  had  elapsed. 
The  Long  Parliament,  the  Civil  War,  the  Commonwealth, 


Chai>.  VI.]  rillRTY    YEARS   OF  PROGRESS.  l8l 

the  Protectorate,  and  the  Restoration  had  succeeded  one 
another  with  startling  abruptness  and  revokitionizing- 
effect.  The  ecclesiastical  tyranny  of  Archbishop  Laud  and 
Charles  I.  was  succeeded  by  a  triumph  of  Presbyterian 
Puritanism  and  a  vigorous  effort  on  the  part  of  the  latter  to 
bring  the  whole  of  Britain  into  subjection  to  Presbyterian 
doctrine  and  discipline  (1641-48).  Independency,  pedo- 
baptist  and  Baptist,  which  in  1640  was  limited  to  a  few  per- 
secuted and  despised  congregations  and  a  number  of  isolated 
individuals  in  the  Puritan  churches,  had  by  1647  attained 
to  a  dominating  position  in  the  triumphant  parliamentary 
arm)^  most  of  the  leading  ofificers  having  become  Inde- 
pendent and  many  of  them  Baptist ;  and  this  Independent 
army  had  been  able  to  destroy  monarchy  and  prelacy  and 
to  put  a  limit  to  Presbyterian  aspirations  after  theocratic 
control.  The  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience,  which  had 
hitherto  been  advocated  only  by  a  few  obscure  Baptists, 
had  been  set  forth  with  magnificent  completeness  and  tell- 
ing effect  by  Roger  Williams,  and  had  been  accepted  with 
greater  or  less  completeness  by  a  large  proportion,  and 
the  most  influential  portion,  of  the  EngHsh  people.  The 
Restoration  had  brought  terrible  persecution  to  dissent 
from  the  established  church,  involving  the  ejection  in  1662 
of  two  thousand  Presbyterian  and  Independent  ministers. 
Even  English  Puritans  were  coming  to  see  that  something 
could  be  said  in  favor  of  toleration.  We  may  note  the 
earnest  remonstrances  from  leading  English  Congregation- 
alists  in  connection  with  the  persecution  of  Clarke,  Holmes, 
and  Crandall,  in  1651.  The  persecution  of  Gould  and  his 
brethren  in  1668  by  the  New  England  Congregationalists 
was  a  source  of  amazement  to  English  Congregationalists, 
who  had  long  before  learned  the  way  of  the  Lord  more 
perfectly,  and  who  were  at  this  very  time  groaning  under 
the  intolerance  of  the  restored  Stuart  dynast}'.     The  New 


1 82  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  i. 

England  theocracy  had  remained  stationary  in  its  intol- 
erance, while  the  large  party  in  England  with  whom  it 
claimed  affiliation  had  made  great  strides  forward  in  their 
conception  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Wilson,  the  first 
pastor  of  the  Boston  church,  made  a  dying  declaration 
about  this  time  (May,  1667),  which  many  accepted  as  the 
words  of  a  prophet.  Among  the  sins  which  in  his  view- 
greatly  provoked  God  were  :"  i.  Separation.  2.  Anabap- 
tism.  3.  Corahism."  The  latter  he  defined  as  rising  up 
against  ministers  or  elders.  All  three  of  these  .specifica- 
tions were  aimed  at  the  Baptists.  He  reproached  the 
magistrates  for  being  "  Gallio-like,  either  not  caring  for 
these  things,  or  else  not  using  their  power  and  authority 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  truth,  gospel,  and  ordinances 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  "Should  the 
Lord  leave  them  hereunto,  how  miserable  a  people  we 
should  be!" 

It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  at  the  time  of  the 
organization  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Boston  the 
New  England  churches  were  convulsed  with  controversy 
over  the  Half-way  Covenant.  According  to  the  earlier 
arrangement,  embodied  in  part  in  the  Cambridge  Platform 
of  1648,  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  citizenship  was  lim- 
ited to  those  in  full  communion  in  one  of  the  recognized 
churches,  and  full  communion  was  accorded  only  to  those 
who  gave  credible  evidence  of  having  exercised  saving 
faith  and  having  been  regenerated  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Each  individual  applying  for  church-membership  must 
submit  to  a  thorough  examination  as  to  his  Christian  ex- 
perience. Only  the  children  of  parents  at  least  one  of 
whom  was  in  full  communion  were  entitled  to  baptism. 
Baptized  children  were  regarded  as  church-members  by 
virtue  of  the  fact  that  they  were  children  of  believers,  but 
even  such  could  become  eligible  to  partake  of  the  Supper 


Chap.  VI.]  THE   HALF-WAY   CO\-EXANT.  1 83 

only  by  making  a  personal  profession  of  saving  faith..  The 
result  of  these  arrangements  was  that  within  a  few  years 
the  great  mass  of  the  population  were  deprived  of  full 
communion  and  so  of  citizenship  and  of  the  right  to  have 
their  children  baptized.  It  began  to  be  seriously  asked 
by  many,  What  is  the  use  of  infant  baptism,  seeing  that  it 
confers  no  special  privilege,  civil  or  religious,  apart  from 
the  personal  profession  of  the  person  baptized  ?  Why  not 
postpone  baptism  until  after  the  personal  profession  ?  The 
discontent  of  the  majority  of  the  population  at  being  taxed 
for  the  support  of  public  worship  and  yet  denied  the  privi- 
leges of  membership  for  themselves  and  their  families,  and 
especially  at  being  civilly  disfranchised,  had  become  so 
general  and  demonstrative  by  1657  that  it  could  no  longer 
be  safely  ignored.  Moreover,  the  tendency  of  the  logic 
of  the  situation  toward  the  production  of  Baptists  had 
doubtless  become  evident  to  many  minds.  The  Half-way 
Covenant  was  a  measure,  agreed  to  by  a  large  majority 
of  the  Synod  called  together  by  the  civil  authorities  to 
consider  the  situation,  for  the  remedying  of  the  difficulties 
that  had  become  embarrassing.  Already  at  the  time  of 
the  adoption  of  the  Cambridge  Platform  there  was  a  large 
and  influential  party  in  favor  of  extending  the  privileges 
of  baptism  and  making  the  terms  of  communion  more  lib- 
eral. The  question  before  the  Synods  of  1657  and  1662 
was  whether  to  enlarge  the  subjects  of  full  communion,  so 
that  those  who  had  been  baptized  in  infancy,  were  ortho- 
dox in  their  views  and  without  scandal  in  their  lives,  should 
be  received  into  full  communion  without  a  personal  pro- 
fession of  saving  faith  ;  or  to  accord  the  privilege  of  bap- 
tism to  the  children  of  such.  The  decision  was  in  favor 
of  the  latter  concession,  but  in  practice  the  doors  of  many 
of  the  churches  were  soon  thrown  wide  open,  and  the  re- 
quirement of  evidences  of  personal  regeneration  was  gen- 


184  ^'^^^   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

erally  abandoned,  its  place  being  taken  by  a  formal  owning 
of  the  covenant.  As  the  logic  of  the  situation  under  the 
Cambridge  Platform  had  favored  the  development  of  Bap- 
tist sentiment,  so  the  virtual  abandonment  of  the  effort  to 
maintain  regenerate  membership  on  the  part  of  the  New 
England  churches  furnished  the  strongest  possible  ground 
for  Baptist  protest,  regenerate  membership  having  been 
from  the  beginning  one  of  the  chief  points  of  their  conten- 
tion. The  Boston  church  of  which  Wilson  had  been  pastor 
was  soon  to  suffer  schism  under  John  Davenport,  his  suc- 
cessor, who  was  one  of  the  most  pronounced  opponents 
of  the  Half-way  Covenant;  and  a  condition  of  unrest  in 
ecclesiastical  matters  that  was  highly  favorable  to  the  for- 
mation of  new  churches  pervaded  the  colonies. 

But  this  necessary  digression  has  already  proceeded  too 
far.  We  left  Gould  under  the  sentence  of  the  court,  with 
banishment  as  the  only  alternative  to  continued  imprison- 
ment, and  the  Baptist  church  forbidden  to  assemble  fur- 
ther under  like  penalties.  On  July  30th,  William  Turner 
and  John  Farnum  were  likewise  committed  to  jail.  A 
numerously  and  influentially  signed  petition  for  the  re- 
lease of  the  prisoners,  based  on  humanitarian  as  well  as 
on  religious  grounds,  was  presented  to  the  assembly  at 
its  autumn  session.  Governor  Bellingham  was  one  of  the 
most  intolerant  of  the  magistrates,  and  was  largely  influ- 
ential in  securing  these  rigorous  measures  against  the  Bap- 
tists. Francis  Willoughby,  deputy  governor,  1665-71,  is 
saici  to  have  opposed  these  persecuting  measures.  Reports 
of  this  persecution  were  sent  to  England.  The  following 
extracts  from  a  letter  written  to  Captain  OliA'er  by  Robert 
Mascall  will  illustrate  the  feelings  awakened  among  Eng- 
lish nonconformists  by  these  procedures:  "We  are  hearty 
and  full  for  our  Presbyterian  brethren's  enjo}'ing  equal 
liberty  with  ourselves;  oh  that  they  had  the  same  spirit 


Chap,  vi.]  INTOLERAXCE  REBUKED.  1 85 

towards  us!  but  oh,  how  it  grieves  and  affects  us  that  New 
Enghuid  should  persecute!  will  you  not  give  what  you 
take?  is  liberty  of  conscience  your  due?  and  is  it  not  as 
due  unto  others  that  are  sound  in  the  faith?  .  .  .  Now 
must  we  force  our  interpretation  upon  others,  Pope-like? 
In  verse  5  of  that  chapter  [Rom.  xiv.]  the  Spirit  of  God 
saith, '  Let  every  one  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind  ;' 
therefore  this  being  the  express  will  of  God,  who  shall 
make  a  contrary  law,  and  say,  Persuadeci  or  not  persuaded, 
you  shall  do  as  we  say,  and  as  we  do !  and  verse  23, '  What 
is  not  of  faith  is  sin;'  therefore  there  must  be  a  word  for 
what  we  do,  and  we  must  see  and  believe  it,  or  else  we 
sin  if  we  do  it.  .  .  .  And  what  principles  is  persecution 
grounded  upon?  Domination  and  infallibility.  This  we 
teach  is  the  truth.  But  are  we  infallible,  and  have  we  the 
government?  God  made  none,  no  not  the  apostles  who 
could  not  err,  to  be  lords  over  faith ;  therefore  what  mon- 
strous pride  is  this?  At  this  rate  any  persuasion  getting 
uppermost  may  command,  and  persecute  them  that  obey 
them  not ;  all  nonconformists  must  be  ill-used.  Oh  wicked 
and  monstrous  principle !  .  .  .  Whatever  you  can  say 
against  those  poor  men,  your  enemies  say  against  you. 
And  what!  is  that  horrid  principle  crept  into  precious 
New  England,  who  have  felt  what  persecution  is,  and  have 
always  pleaded  for  liberty  of  conscience?  Have  not  those 
[Baptist.s]  run  equal  hazards  with  you  for  the  enjoyment 
of  their  liberties ;  and  how  do  you  cast  a  reproach  upon 
us,  that  are  Congregational  in  England,  and  furnish  our 
adversaries  with  weapons  against  us?  We  blush  and  are 
filled  with  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  when  we  hear  of 
these  things."  The  following  from  the  same  letter  shows 
how  English  Congregationalists  had  come  to  look  upon 
their  Baptist  brethren  who  had  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  them  in  the  great  conflict  for  civil  and  religious  lib- 


l86  THE  BAPriS'J'S.  [Per.  i. 

erty :  "Dear  brother,  we  here  do  love  and  honor  them, 
hold  familiarity  with  them,  and  take  sweet  counsel  to- 
gether; they  lie  in  the  bosom  of  Christ,  and  therefore 
ought  to  be  laid  in  our  bosoms.  In  a  word,  we  freely  ad- 
mit them  into  churches;  few  of  our  churches  but  many  of 
our  members  are  Anabaptists;  I  mean  baptized  again.  .  .  . 
Anabaptists  are  neither  spirited  nor  principled  to  injure 
nor  hurt  your  government  nor  your  liberties;  but  rather 
these  be  a  means  to  preserve  your  churches  from  apostasy, 
and  provoke  them  to  their  primitive  purity." 

Thirteen  leading  dissenting  ministers  of  England,  includ- 
ing Drs.  Owen  and  Goodwin  and  Messrs.  Nye  and  Caryl, 
wrote  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  in  a  similar  strain, 
the  consideration  most  emphasized  being  the  great  injury 
that  would  be  done  to  the  dissenting  interest  in  England 
by  such  intolerant  practices  in  New  England. 

It  was  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  combined  influence  of  the 
strong  local  sentiment  that  had  found  expression  in  vari- 
ous ways,  and  to  the  vigorous  protestation  of  the  most  in- 
fluential Congregationalists  of  England,  that  the  prisoners 
for  conscience'  sake  were  released  in  a  little  less  than  a 
year.  It  is  probable  that  a  majority  of  the  magistrates 
would  have  yielded  to  the  demand  for  release  long  before, 
but  the  governor  was  obdurate.  For  some  years  the  Bap- 
tists held  their  services  upon  Noddle's  Island,  where  Gould 
took  up  his  residence.  In  November,  1670,  we  find  Turner 
again  in  prison,  and  warrants  were  "  in  two  marshals'  hands 
for  brother  Gould  also,  but  he  is  not  yet  taken,  because 
he  lives  on  Noddle's  Island,  and  they  only  wait  to  take 
him  at  town."  So  wrote  Edward  Drinker,  a  member  of 
the  church,  to  John  Clarke  and  the  Newport  church.  From 
this  letter  it  appears  that  earnest  efforts  were  made  to 
secure  the  release  of  the  prisoner,  and  that  nearly  all  of 
the  deputies  were  against  the  imprisonment  of  the  Bap- 


Chap.  VI.]  PERSECUTION  CONTINUES.  1 87 

tists :  "  The  town  and  country  is  very  much  troubled  at 
our  troubles;  and  especially  the  old  church  in  Boston,  and 
their  elders,  both  Mr.  Oxonbridge  and  Mr.  Allen,  have  la- 
bored abundantly,  I  think  as  if  it  had  been  for  their  best 
friends  in  the  world.  Many  more  gentlemen  and  solid 
Christians  are  for  our  brother's  deliverance;  but  it  cannot 
be  had ;  a  very  great  trouble  to  the  town  ;  and  they  had 
gotten  six  magistrates'  hands  for  his  deliverance,  but  could 
not  get  the  Governor's  hand  to  it.  .  .  .  We  keep  our  meet- 
ing at  Noddle's  Island,  every  First-day,  and  the  Lord  is 
adding  some  souls  to  us  still,  and  is  enlightening  some 
others  ;  the  priests  are  much  enraged.  The  Lord  has  given 
us  another  elder,  one  John  Russell,  senior,  a  gracious,  wise, 
and  holy  man  that  lives  at  Woburn,  where  we  have  five 
brethren  near  that  can  meet  with  him ;  and  they  meet  to- 
gether First-days  when  they  cannot  come  to  us,  and  I  hear 
there  are  some  more  there  looking  that  way  with  them. 
.  .  Brother  Turner's  family  is  very  weakly  and  himself 
too.      I  fear  he  will  not  trouble  them  long." 

Massachusetts  was  far  behind  the  times  in  the  matter  of 
toleration,  and  a  commotion  like  that  aroused  by  the  per- 
secution of  these  godly,  simple  people  was  needed  to  show 
the  authorities  in  church  and  state  what  the  world  thought 
of  that  sort  of  thing,  and  to  bring  out  into  activity  the  senti- 
ments against  tyranny  and  injustice  that  might  otherwise 
have  remained  latent.  The  reply  from  Newport  written 
by  Samuel  Hubbard  is  full  of  sympathy  and  brotherly 
love.  It  is  dated  "9th  month,  167  [,"  more  than  nine 
months  after  the  letter  of  Drinker.  It  may  be  that  other 
correspondence  intervened.  A  further  letter  written  to 
Newport  in  reply  to  Hubbard's,  and  dated  "  the  first,  loth 
month,  '71,"  contains  the  following  items  :  "Brother  Turner 
has  been  near  to  death,  but  tlirough  mercy  is  revived,  and 
so  has  our  pastor,  Gould.     The  Lord  make  us  truly  thank- 


1 88  l^t^^   BAPriS'JS.  [Pi:k.  I. 

fill,  and  give  us  hearts  to  improve  them,  and  those  liberties 
we  yet  enjoy  that  we  l<no\v  not  how  soon  may  be  taken 
from  us.  The  persecuting  spirit  begins  to  stir  again. 
Elder  Russell  and  his  son,  and  brother  Foster,  are  pre- 
sented to  the  Court  that  is  to  be  this  month."  From  a 
letter  written  by  a  member  of  the  church,  "  14,  of  the  4th 
month,  1672,"  we  learn  that  Russell  is  "out  of  prison 
bonds,  but  is  in  a  doubtful  way  as  to  recovery  of  his  out- 
ward health."  The  party  addressed  had  heard  that  he 
had  died  in  prison. 

In  1672  a  revised  edition  of  the  law-book  of  Massachu- 
setts was  ordered  by  the  assembl)-.  The  \'iews  of  the 
Baptists  are  therein  classed  with  "  damnable  heresies  "  and 
"notorious  impieties."  It  is  "ordered  and  declared  by 
the  Court,  that  if  any  Christian  within  this  jurisdiction 
shall  go  about  to  subvert  and  destroy  the  Christian  faith 
and  religion,  by  breaching  and  maintaining  any  damnable 
heresies;  as  denying  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  or  resur- 
rection of  the  body,  or  any  sin  to  be  repented  cf  in  the 
regenerate,  or  any  evil  done  by  the  outward  man.  to  be 
accounted  sin,  or  denying  that  Christ  gave  himself  a  ran- 
som for  our  sins,  or  shall  affirm  that  we  are  not  justified 
by  his  death  and  righteousness,  but  by  the  perfection  of 
our  own  works,  or  shall  deny  the  morality  of  the  fourth 
commandment,  or  shall  openly  condemn  or  oppose  the 
baptizing  of  infants,  or  shall  purposely  depart  the  con- 
gregation at  the  administration  of  that  ordinance,  or  shall 
deny  the  ordinance  of  magistracy,  or  their  lawful  authority 
to  make  war,  or  to  punish  the  outward  breaches  of  the 
first  table,  or  shall  endeavor  to  seduce  others  to  any  of  the 
errors  and  heresies  above  mentioned ;  every  such  person 
continuing  obstinate  therein,  after  due  means  of  convic- 
tion, shall  be  sentenced  to  banishment." 

Persecution  was  renewed  in  1673.      A  member  of  the 


Chai'.  VI.]  MiriGAriON  OF  PERSECUTION.  1 89 

church,  writing  June  19,  1673,  relates:  "  Brother  Trumbel 
and  brother  Osburne  were  fined  last  Court  at  Charlestown, 
twenty  shillings  apiece;  they  have  appealed  to  the  Court 
of  Assistants."  In  his  election  sermon,  preached  May  7, 
1673,  Urian  Oakes  voiced  the  sentiment  of  the  dominant 
party  when  he  said  :  "  I  look  upon  an  unbounded  toleration 
as  the  first-born  of  all  abominations.  .  .  .  The  eye  of  the 
magistrate  is  to  be  to  the  securing  of  the  way  of  God,  that 
is  duly  established.  .  .  .  We  must  not  be  so  compassionate 
to  schismatic,  turbulent,  erroneous  persons,  as  to  be  cruel, 
injurious,  or  unkind  to  the  precious  interests  of  Christ 
among  us.  Nature  teacheth  a  man  self-preservation. 
Grace  should  teach  a  Christian  magistrate  .  .  .  Christ- 
preservation." 

The  death  of  Governor  Bellingham  (December,  1672) 
and  the  accession  of  Governor  Leverett,  who  had  long 
been  known  as  a  friend  of  the  persecuted  Baptists,  brouglit 
them  considerable  relief  before  the  close  of  1673.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1674,  a  member  could  write:  "The  church  of  the 
baptized  do  peaceably  enjoy  their  liberty."  The  deputy 
governor,  Mr.  Symonds,  was  like-minded  with  the  gover- 
nor in  his  opposition  to  persecution.  The  death  of  the 
noble  founder  and  first  pastor  of  the  church  occurred  Oc- 
tober 27,  1675.  He  was  a  plain  man,  of  only  an  ordinary 
education;  but  he  seems  to  have  been  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  of  power.  There  is  nothing  on  record  to  his 
disadvantage.  His  life  was  one  of  great  sufTering,  but 
eminently  fruitful. 

In  the  great  Indian  war  of  1676,  Captain  William  Turner, 
a  member  of  the  church,  with  a  company  containing  a 
number  of  Baptists,  achieved  one  of  the  most  important 
victories  of  the  campaign  and  lost  his  own  life. 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  Gould,  John  Myles  gave  some 
months  of  valuable  service  to  the  Boston  church,  without 


IQO  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

ceasing  to  be  pastor  at  Swansea.  By  February,  1677,  the 
little  flock  had  so  increased  in  numbers  that  it  was  voted 
to  divide  the  church,  for  the  greater  convenience,  no  doubt, 
of  some  of  the  members;  but  eleven  months  later  this 
action  was  reconsidered,  and  it  was  decided  first  of  all  to 
devote  their  energies  to  the  building  of  a  meeting-house 
and  the  settlement  of  an  efficient  minister.  Of  their  own 
number  Russell  was  thought  to  be  best  qualified  for  the 
pastorate.  The  question  of  retaining  the  services  of  Myles 
and  of  sending  Russell  in  his  place  to  Swansea  was  consid- 
ered ;  but  four  parties  would  have  been  involved  in  such 
a  transaction — namely,  Myles,  Russell,  the  Swansea  church, 
and  the  Boston  church — and  to  secure  the  concurrence  of 
all  would  in  any  case  have  been  a  difficult  undertaking. 
Myles  returned  to  Swansea,  and  in  July,  1679,  Ru.ssell  was 
ordained  pastor  of  the  church. 

Bradstreet,  the  successor  of  Governor  Leverett,  favored 
the  rigorous  execution  of  the  law  against  antipedobaptists, 
and  we  learn  from  a  letter  to  the  Newport  church  dated 
January  25,  1679,  that  members  of  the  church  had  been 
called  to  court,  censured,  heavily  fined,  and  compelled  to 
pay  court  costs,  while  others  had  been  only  admonished 
and  .condemned  to  pay  costs.  It  is  stated  that  the  con- 
stables were  backward  to  distress  them  for  the  charges. 

By  February  9th,  Philip  Squire  and  Fllis  Callender  had 
quietly  erected  a  plain  meeting-house  in  Boston,  for  which 
the  church  paid  them  sixty  pounds.  When  it  became 
known  that  the  new  building  was  to  be  used  as  a  Baptist 
meeting-house,  the  theocratic  authorities  were  filled  with 
indignation  and  alarm.  The  Baptist  leaders  were  arraigned 
before  the  court,  and  as  such  audacity  as  was  involved  in 
the  erection  of  a  Baptist  house  of  worship  had  scarcely 
occurred  to  the  authorities  as  possible,  it  was  found  that 
no  law  existed  arainst  such  an  act.     But  the  Massachusetts 


Chap,  vi.]   CHARLES  II.  REBUKES  IXTOLERAXCE.  19I 

Court  could  enact  laws  as  well  as  execute  them.  It  was 
ordered  "  that  no  persons  whatever,  \vithout  the  consent 
of  the  freemen  of  the  town  where  they  live,  ...  or,  in  de- 
fect of  such  consent,  a  license  by  the  special  order  of  the 
General  Court,  shall  erect  or  make  use  of  any  house  as 
above  said  ;  and  in  case  any  person  or  persons  shall  be 
convicted  of  transgressing  this  law,  every  such  house  or 
houses  wherein  such  persons  shall  so  meet,  more  than 
three,  with  the  land  whereon  such  house  or  houses  stand, 
and  all  private  ways  leading  thereto,  shall  be  forfeited  to 
the  use  of  the  county." 

In  July  following,  Charles  II.,  persecutor  though  he  was, 
wrote  to  the  Massachusetts  authorities,  requiring  them  to 
allow  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  Protestants,  and  especially 
insisting  that  no  good  subjects  of  his,  for  not  agreeing  in 
the  Congregational  way,  should  "  be  subjected  to  fines  or 
forfeitures,  or  other  incapacities  for  the  same ;  which  is  a 
severity  to  be  the  more  w^ondered  at,  whereas  liberty  of 
conscience  was  made  a  principal  motive  for  your  first  trans- 
portation into  those  parts."  But  even  if  the  magistrates 
had  been  disposed  to  yield  to  the  wishes  of  the  king  in 
the  matter  of  toleration,  they  might  have  been  thwarted 
by  the  overwhelming  influence  of  the  ministers.  In  this 
same  year  the  Reforming  Synod  was  called  for  ascertain- 
ing: "  1st.  What  are  the  evils  that  have  provoked  the  Lord 
to  bring  his  judgments  on  New  England?  2d.  What  is 
to  be  done  that  so  these  evils  maybe  reformed?"  In 
the  diagnosis,  under  the  third  specification,  the  following 
occurs:  "Human  inventions  and  will-worship  have  been 
set  up  even  in  Jerusalem.  Men  have  set  up  their  thresh- 
olds by  God's  threshold,  and  their  posts  by  his  post. 
Quakers  are  false  worshipers:  and  such  Anabaptists  as 
have  risen  up  amongst  us,  in  opposition  to  the  churches 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  receiving  into  their  society  those  that 


192  THE   BArriSTS.  [Per.  i. 

hav^e  been  for  scandal  delivered  unto  Satan,  yea,  and  im- 
proving those  as  administrators  of  holy  things,  who  have 
been  (as  doth  appear)  justly  under  church  censures,  do  no 
better  than  to  set  up  an  altar  against  the  Lord's  altar. 
Wherefore  it  must  needs  be  provoking  to  God,  if  these 
things  be  not  duly  and  fully  testified  against,  by  every  one 
in  their  several  capacities  respectively."  The  Old  Testa- 
ment references  following  make  it  evident  that  the  capacity 
in  which  magistrates  are  to  testify  is  the  use  of  force  for  the 
extirpation  of  heresy.  Such  men  as  Increase  Mather  seem 
to  have  honestly  believed  that  one  of  the  reasons  for  the 
terrible  destruction  of  life  and  property  by  the  Indians  from 
1676  onward  was  the  failure  of  the  New  England  people 
to  exterminate  Quakerism  and  antipedobaptism.  It  is 
scarcely  needful  to  say  that  the  "  scandal  "  and  "  church 
censures  "  mentioned  in  the  document  quoted  were  solely 
in  connection  with  protests  against  infant  baptism. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  authorities  should 
have  disregarded  the  king's  command,  and  that  they  should 
have  heeded  the  requirement  of  the  ministers  in  solemn 
Synod  assembled  to  testify  "  duly  and  fully  "  against  "  the 
Anabaptists."  A  warrant  was  issued  for  March  5,  1680, 
"  in  his  Majesty's  name,  forthwith  to  summon  Philip  Squire, 
Thomas  Skinner,  and  Mr.  Drinker,  to  make  their  appear- 
ance before  the  Court  of  Assistants  now  sitting,  ...  to 
give  an  account  of  their  breach  of  the  law  in  erecting  a 
meeting-house."  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  law  re- 
ferred to  was  enacted  after  the  offense  had  been  com- 
mitted ;  and  to  issue  a  warrant  in  his  Majesty's  name  in  op- 
position to  his  Majesty's  express  command  seems  a  little 
like  taking  his  Majesty's  name  in  vain.  The  church  pre- 
sented to  the  court  a  dignified  and  Christian  "  petition  and 
declaration,"  in  which  they  set  forth  the  innocence  of  their 
motives  in  separating  and   in   building  a  meeting-house, 


CiiAi'.  VI.]  THE   MEETIXG-IIOUSE    CLOSED.  193 

and  as  "  having  no  design  against  the  peace  of  the  place, 
but  being  still  as  ready  as  ever  to  hazard  "  their"  lives  for 
the  defense  of  the  people  of  God  here,"  they  "  do  humbly 
request  "  that  they  may  be  permitted  "  to  enjoy  the  liberty 
of  God's  worship,  in  such  places  as  God  has  afforded" 
them.  "  There  being  a  law  made  in  ]\Iay  last  against 
meeting  in  the  place  built,  we  submitted  to  the  same,  until 
we  fully  understood,  by  letters  from  several  in  London, 
that  it  was  his  Majesty's  pleasure  and  command  .  .  .  that 
we  should  enjoy  liberty  of  our  meetings  in  the  manner  as 
other  of  his  Protestant  subjects;  and  the  General  Court  at 
their  last  meeting  not  having  voted  a  non-concurrence." 

The  court  responded  by  ordering  the  doors  of  the  house 
to  be  shut,  and  inhibiting  the  holding  of  meetings  or  the 
opening  of  the  doors.  The  Baptists  worshiped  the  next 
Lord's  Day  in  the  yard,  and  afterward  built  a  shed  for 
protection  from  the  weather.  A  week  later  they  found 
the  doors  open,  by  whose  agency  they  knew  not,  and  wor- 
shiped in  the  building.  For  this  they  were  again  sum- 
moned (May  11).  Eight  days  later  they  were  "  admon- 
ished "  and  "  their  offense  past "  forgiven,  but  they  were  "  still 
prohibited  "  "  to  meet  in  that  public  place  they  have  built, 
or  any  other  public  house  except  such  as  are  allowed  by 
lawful  authority." 

Pastor  Russell  at  about  this  time  wrote  a  "  Narrative  " 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Boston  Baptist  church,  which  was 
published  in  England,  with  a  preface  by  William  Kiffin, 
Daniel  Dyke,  William  Collins,  Hanserd  Knollys,  John  Har- 
ris, and  Nehemiah  Cox,  the  leading  Particular  Baptist 
ministers  of  England  at  that  time.  These  ministers  ex- 
press amazement  that  those  who  fled  persecution  and 
sought  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  New  World,  with  their 
immediate  successors,  should  persecute  their  brethren  for 
differences  in  religion.      "  For  one  Protestant  congregation 


194  ^-^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

to  persecute  another,  where  there  is  no  pretense  to  infalH- 
bihty  in  the  decision  of  all  controversies,  seems  much  more 
unreasonable  than  the  cruelties  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
towards  them  that  depart  from  their  superstitions." 

In  1 68 1  Samuel  Willard  published  a  reply  to  Russell's 
"  Narrative,"  with  a  preface  by  Increase  Mather,  who  re- 
pudiates the  representation  that  the  New  England  anti- 
pedobaptists  are  persecuted  "  merely  for  a  supposed  error 
about  the  subject  of  baptism."  He  agrees  that  "  Protest- 
ants ought  not  to  persecute  any,"  but  thinks  it  "  cannot 
be  rationall}/  denied  "  "  that  Protestants  may  punish  Prot- 
estants." He  entreats  his  English  Baptist  "  brethren " 
"seriously  to  consider:  i.  That  the  place  may  sometimes 
make  a  great  alteration  as  to  the  indulgence  to  be  expected. 
It  is  evident  that  that  toleration  is  in  one  place,  not  only 
lawful,  but  a  necessary  duty,  which  in  another  place  would 
be  destructive ;  and  the  expectation  of  it  irrational.  That 
which  is  needful  to  ballast  a  great  ship  will  sink  a  small 
boat.  ...  2.  Let  them  consider  that  those  of  their  per- 
suasion in  this  place  have  acted  with  so  much  irregularity 
and  profaneness,  that  should  men  of  any  persuasion  what- 
soever have  done  the  like,  the  same  severity  would  ha\-e 
been  used  towards  them."  This  last  statement,  in  view  of 
all  the  facts  presented  on  both  sides,  cannot  be  regarded 
as  other  than  slanderous.  The  sum  of  their  offending  had 
been  their  refusal  to  have  their  children  baptized,  their  re- 
fusal to  witness  the  administration  of  the  rite,  and  in  a  few 
cases  somewhat  demonstrative  protestations  of  dissatisfac- 
tion with  what  they  regarded  as  an  utter  perversion  of  an 
ordinance  of  Christ. 

The  sentiment  of  the  dominant  party  toward  the  Baptists 
at  this  time  is  probably  faithfully  represented  by  Willard 
in  the  work  referred  to :  "  They  say  baptized  persons  are 
true  matter  of  a  visible  church,  and  they  say  those  that 


Chap.  VI.]  BAPTISTS    TOLERATED.  195 

were  only  sprinkled  in  their  infancy  were  never  baptized; 
and  will  not  this  undermine  the  foundation  of  all  the 
churches  in  the  world  but  theirs?  and  what  more  perni- 
cious !  they  had  even  as  good  cry  with  Edom's  sons,  Raze 
it,  raze  it  to  the  foundation!  .  .  .  Experience  tells  us  that 
such  a  rough  thing  as  a  New  England  Anabaptist  is  not 
to  be  handled  overtenderly."  Hubbard  sought  to  bring 
Russell  into  contempt  by  stigmatizing  him  as  "  a  wedder- 
drop'd  shoemaker." 

It  appears  that  the  authorities  now  yielded  to  the  press- 
ure at  home  and  from  abroad,  and  desisted  from  their 
efforts  to  suppress  the  Baptist  meeting.  Elder  Russell 
died  December  21,  1680.  Elder  Hull  seems  to  have 
been  for  some  time  associated  with  him  in  the  pastoral, 
guidance  of  the  church.  The  chief  responsibility  soon 
cam'e  to  rest  upon  Ellis  Callender  and  Edward  Drinker. 
In  1684  the  church  secured  the  services  of  John  Emblen, 
an  English  Baptist  minister,  who  continued  with  them  till 
his  death  in  1699.  After  fruitless  efforts  to  obtain  another 
pastor  from  England,  Ellis  Callender,  who  had  for  thirty 
years  been  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  church, 
was  called  to  the  pastoral  office.  He  was  ordained  in  i  708, 
and  ministered  to  the  flock  till  17  18,  when  he  was  willing 
to  lay  the  burden  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  son  Elisha,  a 
Harvard  graduate. 

As  indicating  the  change  of  sentiment  on  the  part  of 
the  ministers  of  the  standing  order  in  relation  to  the  Bap- 
tists, it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  17 14,  after  relief  from 
great  distress,  the  Baptists  were  invited  to  join  with  the 
other  churches  in  acknowledging  the  "  favors  of  our  prayer- 
hearing  Lord,  with  the  solemnities  of  a  thank.sgiving." 
Cotton  Mather,  who  yet  in  his  "  Magnalia  "  was  ungener- 
ous and  unfair  in  his  treatment  of  the  Baptists,  communi- 
cated the  invitation  in  courteous  style.      It  is  addressed 


196  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

"  to  my  worthy  friend,  Mr.  Ellis  Callender,  elder  of  a  church 
of  Christ  in  Boston."  Evidently,  prejudice  against  Bap- 
tists had  lost  much  of  its  pristine  bitterness. 

By  I  718  the  relations  between  the  Baptists  of  Boston 
and  the  representatives  of  the  standing  order  had  become 
so  cordial  that,  on  the  occasion  of  the  ordination  of  Elisha 
Callender,  the  aged  Increase  Mather  was  invited  to  give 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and  his  son,  Cotton  Mather, 
to  preach  the  ordination  sermon.  These  inxitations  were 
graciously  accepted,  and  the  duties  involved  gracefully 
performed.  The  sermon  was  a  somewhat  remarkable  plea 
for  unity  and  brotherly  love  as  far  as  conscience  will  allow, 
and  for  toleration  of  differences  when  agreement  cannot 
be  attained.  "  Let  good  men  go  as  far  as  they  can  with- 
out sin  in  holding  communion  with  one  another.  But  where 
sinful  terms  are  imposed,  there  let  them  make  their  stops ; 
there  a  separation  becomes  a  duty ;  there  the  injunction  of 
Heaven  upon  them  is.  Be  ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord,  and 
touch  not  the  unclean  thing;  and  I  will  receive  you." 

With  a  highly  educated  and  zealous  young  pastor  thus 
recognized  by  the  most  prominent  ministers  and  churches 
of  the  Congregational  way,  the  Boston  Baptist  church  is 
at  last  freed  from  the  harassments  of  the  earlier  time  and 
from  the  struggle  for  mere  existence,  and  is  in  a  position 
to  carry  forward  its  work  with  vigor  and  comfort.  Ellis 
Callender  had  won  the  respect  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and 
to  a  still  greater  extent,  no  doubt,  his  liberally  educated 
son  enjoyed  the  esteem  of  the  community.  His  labors  as 
pastor  of  this  church  terminated  with  his  life  in  i  738.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Jeremiah  Condy,  a  young  Englishman 
sent  out  at  the  request  of  the  church,  who  was  ordained 
in  1739  and  ser\-ed  tlie  church  for  twenty-five  years  His 
Arminianism  and  his  opposition  to  the  great  revival  led  to 
the  organization  of  the  Second  Boston  Church  in  1743. 


CHAr.  VI.]  IIOLLIS\S   BENEFACTIOXS.  197 

It  seems  to  have  been  due,  in  some  measure  at  least,  to 
the  influence  of  EHsha  Callender  that  Thomas  Hollis,  a 
wealthy  EngUsh  Baptist,  and  his  descendants  for  two  or 
three  generations  contributed  with  a  generosity  unusual 
at  that  time  to  the  equipment  and  endowment  of  Harvard 
College.  It  appears  that  Hollis  had  become  acquainted 
with  President  Increase  Mather  during  a  \isit  of  the  lat- 
ter to  England,  and  when  he  learned  of  the  courtesy  and 
good- will  shown  to  the  Baptists  by  President  Mather  and 
his  son  in  connection  with  the  ordination  of  Elisha  Cal- 
lender, he  decided  to  make  Harvard  College  an  object  of 
his  benefactions.  He  provided  for  the  education  of  a 
number  of  Baptist  students  for  the  ministry  at  the  col- 
lege, and  urged  upon  the  ministers  of  the  various  Baptist 
churches  of  America  the  importance  of  sending  suitable 
young  men  to  be  educated  on  these  foundations.  He  also 
gave  great  encouragement  to  other  Baptist  ministers  as 
well  as  Callender  through  gifts  of  books  and  in  other  deli- 
cate ways.  His  name  will  ever  be  honored  as  that  of  one 
of  the  noblest  benefactors  of  the  Baptist  cause  and  the 
cause  of  Christian  education. 

The  First  Baptist  Church  of  Boston  became,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  the  mother  of  churches.  The  New- 
bury church  was  formed  in  1682,  with  the  assent  and  no 
doubt  with  the  cooperation  of  the  Boston  church.  It  is 
probable  that  several  of  its  constituent  members  had  been 
connected  with  the  older  church  (Backus,  i.,  405  ;  cf.  Wes- 
ton's foot-note  on  same  page).  The  church  organized 
by  William  Screven,  Humphrey  Churchwood,  and  others 
at  Kittery,  Me.,  during  the  same  year,  was  likewise 
due  to  Boston  influence.  The  important  and  interest- 
ing history  of  this  movement  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
narrate  elsewhere.  By  1694  there  were  two  Indian  Bap- 
tist churches  in  Massachusetts,  one  on  Martha's  Vineyard 


198  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

and  another  on  Nantucket  Island.  Thomas  Mayhew,  the 
proprietor  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  had  treated  the  natives 
so  humanely  that  large  numbers  of  them  had  accepted  the 
gospel.  His  son  ministered  to  them  in  spiritual  things. 
The  first  to  introduce  Baptist  views  among  them  appears  to 
have  been  Peter  Foulger,  who  was  employed  as  a  teacher 
among  them  during  the  absence  in  England  of  the  younger 
Mayhew.  So  friendly  were  these  Indians  that  during  tlic 
terrible  wars  of  1676  onw^ard  they  remained  faithful  to  the 
English.  Foulger  became  a  member  of  the  First  Newport 
Church  about  1675.  One  of  his  grandsons  was  Benjamin 
Franklin.  The  first  Indian  Baptist  pastor  of  whom  we  are 
informed  was  John  Tackamason.  Though  not  himself  a 
Baptist,  Mayhew  expressed  the  highest  confidence  in  his 
Christian  character:  "I  had  frequent  conversation  with 
him  while  he  was  in  health,  and  sometimes  ...  in  the  time 
of  that  long  sickness  whereof  he  died ;  and  never  from  first 
to  last  saw  anything  by  him  that  made  me  any  ways  sus- 
pect the  integrity  of  his  heart,  but  did  ever  think  him  to 
be  a  godly  and  discreet  man."  His  death  occurred  in  i  708. 
A  Six  Principle  Baptist  church  was  formed  at  Swansea  in 
1693  under  the  leadership  of  Thomas  Barnes.  In  1732  a 
Baptist  church  was  formed  in  Rehoboth  under  the  minis- 
try of  the  learned  and  zealous  John  Comer,  who  had  given 
up  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Church,  New^port,  on  account 
of  his  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  the  laying  on  of  hands, 
but,  unlike  most  Six  Principle  Baptists,  continued  to  be  an 
earnest  Calvinist.  Thirty  members  withdrew  from  the 
iMrst  Church,  Swansea,  without  ill-will  on  either  side  so 
far  as  appears,  to  form  the  new^  church.  The  elders  and 
messengers  of  the  Swansea  church  assisted  in  the  installa- 
tion of  the  pastor.  A  revival  ensued  immediately  upon 
the  organization,  and  in  less  than  two  years  the  church 
had  a  membership  of  ninety- five.      Comer  labored  with 


CiiAP.  VI.]  COMER'S  DEATH.  1 99 

consuming  zeal,  his  evangelistic  efforts  extending  far  be- 
yond the  limits  of  his  own  community.  He  died  of  con- 
sumption in  his  thirtieth  year,  May  23,  1734.  Though  his 
life  was  thus  cut  short,  the  life-work  of  few  of  his  contem- 
poraries was  more  fruitful.  Largely  through  the  influence 
of  the  labors  of  Comer  in  1632,  a  Baptist  church  was  or- 
ganized at  Sutton,  September,  1635,  of  which  two  years 
later  Benjamin  Marsh  and  Thomas  Green  became  joint 
pastors.  The  church  divided  by  mutual  agreement  in  Sep- 
tember, 1738,  Green  becoming  pastor  of  the  new  Leices- 
ter church.  In  November,  1736,  a  Baptist  church  was 
organized  at  Brimfield,  and  five  years  later  Ebenezer 
Moulton,  whose  ancestor,  Robert  Moulton,  had  been  a 
member  of  the  first  House  of  Representatives  at  Boston 
in  1634,  but  who  was  among  those  disarmed  in  1637  in 
connection  with  the  antinomian  controversy  (Backus,  ii., 
31,  and  Weston's  note),  became  pastor. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

BAPTISTS    IN    PENNSYLVANIA    AND    THE   JERSEYS.^ 

The  Jerseys  and  Pennsylvania  from  about  1682  onward 
had  a  strong  attraction  for  all  radical  types  of  evangelical 
life.  Here  the  Baptists  rooted  themselves  more  frmly 
than  in  almost  any  other  part  of  America,  and  here  they 
attained  to  a  perfection  of  organization  and  to  a  degree  of 
unity  and  uniformity  in  doctfine  and  polity  that  could  be 
found  nowhere  else  on  the  continent.  The  confirmation 
of  England's  claim  to  the  possession  of  New  Jersey  in  1674 
and  of  the  grants  of  this  territory  by  the  crown  to  the 
Duke  of  York  and  by  him  to  Sir  George  Carteret  and  to 
Lord  John  Berkeley,  whose  toleration  principles  had  be- 
come well  known  through  their  earlier  relations  to  this 
territory,  and  especially  fhe  purchase  of  Lord  Berkeley's 
interest  by  the  Quakers  Fenwicke  and  Byllynge,  caused  a 
large  influx  of  Quakers  and  Baptists  from  England  and 
elsewhere.  The  Quakers  had  control  of  West  Jersey  from 
1677  onward.  After  the  death  of  Carteret  his  interests 
were  purchased  by  a  company  of  Quakers,  of  whom  Wil- 
liam Penn  was  the  chief  (February,  1682,  N.  S  ).  Thus  a 
large  and  attractive  region  was  opened  up  for  settlement 
on  the  most  liberal  terms.  Even  more  important  to  the 
cause  of  religious  freedom  and  to  the  settlement  of  the 
country  with  radical  and  primitive  types  of  Christianity  was 
the  purchase  of  Pennsylvania  by  William  Penn,  the  Quaker 

1  Cf.  Morgan  Edwards;  Benedict;  "  Min.  Phil.  Bapt.  Assoc.;"  Spencer; 
Cook;  Jones,  "  Hist.  Sk.  Lower  Dublin  Baptist  Church." 

200 


CiiAP.  VII.]  PE/VN  AND   PENiXSYLVAXIA.  20I 

capitalist,  statesman,  and  philanthropist,  in  1681.  It  is  one 
of  the  marvels  of  history  that  such  a  king  as  Charles  II. 
should  have  sold  to  such  a  man  as  William  Penn  so  large 
and  valuable  a  territory  as  Pennsylvania  on  terms  so  highly 
favorable  to  civil  and  religious  freedom,  and  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  it  would  be  used  for  the  freest  development  of 
what  was  then  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  radical  forms 
of  Christianity.  The  authority  of  Penn  in  the  government 
of  the  pro\  ince  was  made  practically  unlimited.  But  he 
had  purchased  the  territory  not  for  his  own  sake,  but  for 
the  advancement  of  truth  and  righteousness.  The  rapid- 
ity with  which  the  territory  was  settled  b}-  Quakers  from 
England,  Wales,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  by  Mennonites, 
Dunkards,  and  Pietists  from  Germany  and  the  Nether- 
lands, and  by  Baptists  from  Wales  and  elsewhere,  was 
unprecedented  in  the  history  of  American  colonization. 
Many  of  all  classes  were  attracted  from  the  older  colonies 
by  the  civil  and  religious  freedom  and  by  the  advantages 
of  climate  and  soil  that  the  new  commonwealth  offered. 
By  1685  the  population  had  reached  7200  and  embraced 
French,  Dutch,  Germans,  Swedes,  P^inns,  and  Scotch- Irish, 
besides  large  numbers  of  English  and  Welsh. 

The  first  Baptist  church  organized  in  these  Quaker 
provinces  was  that  at  Cold  Spring,  Bucks  County,  Pa.  It 
was  founded  about  1684  by  Thomas  Dungan,  an  Irish 
Baptist  minister,  who  had  been  for  some  time  a  member 
of  the  Newport  church.  Little  is  known  of  the  man  or 
his  work.  Pie  was  already  advanced  in  years.  Keach 
characterized  him  as  "an  ancient  disciple  and  teacher 
among  the  Baptists."  The  church  had  become  extinct 
by  1702,  Dungan  having  died  in  1688  and  no  efficient 
leader  having  appeared  to  take  his  place.  Dungan's  pos- 
terity amounted  in  1770,  according  to  Morgan  Edwards, 
to  between  six  and  seven  hundred. 


202  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

The  next  church  to  be  organized  in  Pennsylvania  was 
that  at  Lower  Dublin,  or  Pennepek.  In  1686  several 
Baptist  families  from  Radnorshire,  Wales,  together  with 
an  Irish  and  an  English  Baptist,  settled  on  the  banks  of 
the  Pennepek  River.  At  about  the  same  time  Elias  Keach, 
son  of  Benjamin  Keach,  the  famous  English  Baptist  minis- 
ter and  author,  came  as  a  youthful  adventurer  to  Pennsyl- 
vania. Whether  from  mere  w^antonness  or  from  a  desire 
by  fraud  to  secure  a  livelihood,  he  assumed  the  clerical 
dress  and  passed  himself  off  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel, 
being  at  the  time  an  utter  stranger  to  divine  grace.  As  a 
son  of  Benjamin  Keach  he  found  ready  access  to  the  little 
band  of  Baptists  on  the  Pennepek,  and  it  was  arranged  that 
he  should  preach  for  them.  When  he  was  in  the  midst 
of  his  discourse  the  enormity  of  his  sin  dawned  upon  him. 
He  was  overcome  by  remorse,  confessed  his  imposture,  and 
was  soon  afterward  a  rejoicing  believer.  He  was  baptized 
and  ordained  to  the  ministry  by  Elder  Dungan.  A  num- 
ber who  had  been  converted  under  his  ministry  and  bap- 
tized by  him  joined  with  the  original  company  in  organiz- 
ing themselves  into  a  church,  January,  1688.  A  number 
of  scattered  Baptists  in  other  parts  of  the  province  and 
in  West  Jersey  united  with  them.  Through  the  earnest 
evangelistic  efforts  of  young  Keach,  baptized  believers 
were  soon  to  be  found  at  the  Falls,  Cold  Spring,  Burling- 
ton, Cohansey,  Salem,  Penn's  Neck,  Chester,  Philadelphia, 
and  other  places.  These  continued  for  some  time  to  be 
members  of  the  Pennepek  church,  where  they  met  from 
time  to  time  to  break  bread,  preaching  services  being  held 
in  each  locality  as  often  as  convenient,  while  four  quarterly 
meetings  w^ere  held  for  evangelistic  and  communion  pur- 
poses at  Burlington,  Cohansey,  Chester,  and  Philadelphia, 
in  rotation.  Keach's  return  to  England  in  1692  was  a 
severe  loss  to  this  widespread   Baptist  community.      He 


Chap.  VII.]  PENNEPEK  AND  PISCATAQUA.  203 

seems  to  have  resigned  the  pastorate  of  the  Pennepek 
church  in  1689  on  account  of  controversy  on  the  laying 
on  of  hands,  and  to  have  spent  the  two  years  following  as 
an  evangelist.  One  effect  of  the  cultivation  of  so  wide  a 
field  by  the  pastor  and  members  was  the  development  of 
the  gifts  of  the  brethren.  During  the  pastor's  absence  from 
Pennepek  weekly  "  meetings  for  conference  "  were  sus- 
tained, and  in  the  out-stations  of  the  church  brethren  were 
raised  up  who  could  conduct  the  services  to  edification. 
Keach  was  succeeded  in  the  pastorate  by  John  Watts,  one 
of  the  constituent  members ;  and  Samuel  Jones,  another, 
was  appointed  to  conduct  the  home  services  during  the 
pastor's  absence.  Jones  and  Evan  Morgan,  who  had  been 
for  some  time  active  in  church  work,  were  ordained  to  the 
pastorate  in  i  706.  Serious  and  long-continued  difficulties 
marred  the  life  of  the  church  during  the  last  years  of  the 
century.  The  questions  causing  trouble  were  absolute 
predestination,  the  laying  on  of  hands,  psalm-singing,  and 
Sabbatarianism. 

The  church  at  Piscataqua,  N.  J., was  gathered  by  Thomas 
Killingsworth  about  1689.  Killingsworth  was  one  of  the 
most  zealous  and  successful  of  the  Baptist  ministers  of 
this  region  and  was  instrumental  in  founding  a  number  of 
churches.  He  seems  to  have  been  an  ordained  minister 
in  England.  For  some  years  he  added  to  his  labors  as  a 
minister  those  of  county  judge.  It  has  been  thought  prob- 
able that  the  nucleus  of  this  church  was  due  to  the  influ- 
ence of  Hanserd  Knollys,  who  labored  in  Piscataqua,  N.  H., 
1638-41.  Knollys  was  not  a  Baptist  at  the  time,  but  Bap- 
tist views  appeared  in  the  community  a  few  years  later, 
possibly  through  his  teachings.  It  is  said  further  that 
those  who  sympathized  with  Knollys  went  to  Long  Island, 
whence  they  removed  to  New  Jersey.  The  name  given 
to  their  settlement  (Piscataqua)  would  seem  to  favor  the 


204  ^-^^^   BAPTISTS.  [Pick.  i. 

theory.  But  we  should  beware  of  building  on  so  slender 
a  basis  of  fact.  The  church  when  organized  consisted  of 
only  six  members.  After  about  twenty  years  the  number 
had  increased  to  twenty,  and  by  1746  to  one  hundred. 

About  I  701  a  member  of  the  church,  named  Dunham, 
admonished  a  neighbor  for  working  on  Sunday.  He  was 
asked  to  prove  the  holiness  of  the  first  day.  As  a  result 
of  his  examination  of  the  question  he  was  led  to  adopt 
Sabbatarian  views.  About  seventeen  members  of  the 
churcli  joined  with  him  in  organizing  a  Seventh-day  Bap- 
tist church  in  1705.  Dunham  became  the  pastor  of  the 
church  and  in  1734  was  succeeded  by  his  son.  As  an  off- 
shoot from  this  church  another  Seventh-day  church  was 
formed  at  Shiloh,  about  forty  miles  south  of  Philadelphia, 

in  1737- 

The  church  at  Middletown,  N.  J.,  was  probably  organ- 
ized in  1687  or  1688.  A  considerable  Baptist  commu- 
nity, made  up  of  immigrants  from  Rhode  Island  and  Long 
Island,  had  been  on  the  ground  since  1665.  Among  the 
Rhode  Islanders  was  a  son  of  Obadiah  Holmes.  Reach 
and  Rillingsworth  both  bestowed  considerable  labor  on 
this  field.  By  1711  the  church  had  become  in\-olved  in 
doctrinal  controversy.  The  two  pastors.  Brown  and  Oki- 
son,  had  been  silenced  by  the  contending  factions.  A 
council  of  sister-churches  was  called  in  1712  to  seek  an 
adjustment  of  the  differences.  The  decision  of  the  council 
was  that  the  members  should  sign  Elias  Reach's  Confession 
of  Faith,  at  least  the  Covenant  annexed  to  it.  Those  who 
should  conform  to  this  requirement  would  be  recognized 
as  the  only  regular  Baptist  church  in  those  parts.  Of  the 
sixty-eight  members  forty-two  subscribed,  while  twenty- 
six  refused.  It  was  further  recommended  that  the  recu- 
sants should  be  tenderly  dealt  with.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  the  minority  effected  a  separate  organization.      The 


Chap,  vii.]         COHAXSEY  AND  PIIILADELnilA.  20$ 

two  brethren  who  had  been  silenced  were  ordered  by  the 
council  to  remain  silent.  The  recommendation  "  to  bury 
their  proceedings  in  oblivion  and  erase  the  record  of  them  " 
seems  to  have  been  observed  so  far  as  removing  from  the 
book  the  leaves  containing  the  record  is  concerned.  The 
church  secured  John  Burrows  as  pastor  the  next  year,  who 
served  them  till  his  death.  At  the  close  of  the  present 
period  Abel  Morgan,  who  was  soon  to  become  one  of  the 
most  noted  Baptist  preachers  of  the  time,  had  just  entered 
upon  the  pastorate  of  this  church. 

The  nucleus  of  the  Cohansey,  N.  J.,  church  was  formed, 
it  would  seem,  by  a  small  company  of  Baptists  from  Tip- 
perary,  Ireland,  who  settled  in  the  community  about  1687. 
They  were  joined  two  years  later  by  Obadiah  Holmes,  Jr., 
and  John  Cornelius,  both  from  Rhode  Island.  Keach 
bestowed  considerable  labor  upon  this  field  also  and  bap- 
tized a  number  in  1688.  The  organization  of  the  church 
was  effected  about  1691.  Killingsworth  remained  pastor 
of  the  church  till  his  death,  in  i  708,  and  was  assisted  by 
Holmes,  who  was  judge  of  the  Common  Pleas  in  Salem 
Court.  A  party  of  Baptists  from  Swansea,  Mass.,  had  set- 
tled in  the  neighborhood  before  the  church  was  organized, 
and  under  the  leadership  of  Timothy  Brooks  maintained  a 
separate  meeting  until  after  Killingsworth's  death.  This 
was  due  to  differences  of  opinion  on  predestination,  psalm- 
singing,  the  laying  on  of  hands,  etc.  The  two  bodies  now 
united  under  the  pastorate  of  Brooks,  who  died  two  years 
later.  During  the  latter  part  of  this  period  the  church 
was  served  chiefly  by  Nathaniel  Jenkins,  pastor  of  the  Cape 
May  church,  who  finally  settled  at  Cohansey. 

The  formal  organization  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Philadelphia  did  not  occur  until  1698,  although  services 
had  been  held  in  the  city  under  the  auspices  of  the  Penne- 
pek  church  from  1687  onward.     John  Holmes,  who  also 


206  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

occupied  a  high  judicial  position,  and  who  as  judge  on 
one  occasion  refused  to  act  with  the  Quaker  magistrates 
against  the  Keithian  Quakers,  is  the  first  Baptist  known  to 
have  settled  in  Philadelphia.  He  seems  to  have  arrived 
in  1686.  A  number  of  English  Baptists  took  up  their 
residence  in  the  city  in  1696  and  1697.  I^^  the  latter  year 
Thomas  Killingsworth  baptized  a  considerable  number  in 
Philadelphia,  including  two  Keithian  Quakers.  From  this 
time  onward  the  relations  of  this  church  to  the  Keithians 
become  interesting  and  important.  The  schism  in  the 
Quaker  body  led  by  George  Keith,  who  bitterly  attacked 
the  body  on  the  ground  of  its  exaltation  of  the  inner  light 
and  its  comparative  disparagement  of  Scripture  author- 
ity, its  neglect  of  discipline,  its  departure  from  the  earlier 
teaching  of  the  body  with  reference  to  warfare,  magistracy, 
etc.,  led  to  some  gain  in  numbers  by  the  Baptists,  but  in- 
volved them  in  somewhat  serious  troubles  as  well.  Keith 
himself  forsook  his  followers  and  entered  the  Episcopal 
Church.  Some  of  the  Keithians  returned  to  the  regular 
Quakers,  some  united  with  one  denomination,  and  some 
with  another.  Yet  several  congregations  held  together,  not- 
ably those  of  Upper  Providence,  Philadelphia,  Southamp- 
ton, and  Lower  Dublin.  According  to  Morgan  Edwards, 
"  These,  by  resigning  themselves  to  the  guidance  of  Script- 
ure, began  to  find  water  in  the  commission  ;  bread  and  wnne 
in  the  command  ;  community  of  goods,  love-feast,  kiss'  of 
charity,  right  hand  of  fellowship,  anointing  the  sick  for  re- 
covery, and  washing  the  disciples'  feet ;  and  therefore  were 
determined  to  practice  accordingly.  The  society  of  Keith- 
ians most  forward  in  these  matters  was  that  kept  at  the 
house  of  Thomas  Powell,  in  Upper  Providence ;  which  for- 
wardness, it  is  said,  was  due  to  one  Abel  Noble,  who  vis- 
ited them,  and  was  a  Seventh-day  Baptist  minister  when 
he  arrived  in  this  country.     The  time  they  began  to  put 


Chap,  vii.]  THE   KEITHIAN  QUAKERS.  20/ 

their  designs  in  practice  was  Jan.  28,  1697,  when  the  said 
Abel  Noble  baptized  a  public  Friend,  whose  name  was 
Thomas  Martin.  .  .  .  Afterwards  Mr.  Martin  baptized 
other  Quakers,  to  the  number  of  16."  Beckingham,  a 
member  of  the  Cohansey  church,  joined  with  them  in  or- 
ganizing a  church,  of  which  Martin  was  chosen  pastor  b)^ 
lot.  Fifteen  other  Quakers  soon  united  with  the  church. 
"  But  in  I  700  a  difference  arose  among  them,  touching  the 
Sabbath,  which  broke  up  the  society.  Such  as  adhered 
to  the  observation  of  the  Seventh  day,  kept  together  at 
Newtown.  .  .  .  The  rest  lay  scattered  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, till  Mr.  Abel  Morgan  gathered  together  1 5  of  them, 
and  formed  them  into  a  society,  now  called  the  church  of 
Brandy  wine."     This  latter  was  a  regular  Baptist  church. 

The  Philadelphia  society  of  Keithians  built  a  meeting- 
house in  1692.  Two  of  their  members,  William  Davis  and 
Thomas  Rutter,  were  baptized  by  Killingsworth  in  1697. 
The  former  united  with  the  Pennepek  church,  the  latter 
baptized  nine  others  and  organized  them  (1698)  into  a 
society  on  the  basis  of  believers'  baptism. 

In  1699  the  Baptists  received  an  invitation  from  Thomas 
Clayton,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  to  unite  with  the  Church 
of  England.  They  replied  in  a  dignified  manner,  declin- 
ing to  do  so  unless  he  could  prove  "  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  under  the  New  Testament  may  consist  ...  of  a 
mixed  multitude  and  their  seed,  even  all  the  members  of 
a  nation,  .  .  .  whether  they  are  godly  or  ungodly,"  that 
"  lords,  archbishops,  etc.,  .  .  .  are  of  divine  institution 
and  appointment,"  and  that  their  vestments,  liturgical  ser- 
vices, use  of  musical  instruments,  infant  baptism,  sprinkling, 
"  signing  with  the  cross  in  baptism,"  etc.,  are  warranted 
by  Scripture.  In  1707  the  Baptists  were  invited  by  the 
Keithians  to  unite  with  them  and  to  make  use  of  their  build- 
ing.    This  was  the  first  meeting-house  owned  by  the  Phila- 


205 


THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 


delphia  Baptists.  One  of  the  Keithians,  not  sympathizing 
with  the  union,  gave  a  deed  of  the  property  to  the  Episco- 
pahans,  and  the  church,  to  avoid  Htigation,  paid  a  sum  of 
money  to  satisfy  the  chiim.  Grave  difficuhies  were  occa- 
sioned in  the  church  (171 1-12)  by  Thomas  Selby,  an  Irish 
minister,  who  apart  from  tliese  troubles  afterward  proved 
unworthy.  The  matter  was  referred  to  the  Association 
in  I  712.  The  result  was  that  several  of  Selby 's  partisans 
withdrew  from  the  church  and  united  with  other  denomi- 
nations. The  independence  of  the  Philadelphia  church 
was  not  recognized  until  i  746.  The  occasion  of  the  dec- 
laration of  independence  w^as  the  desire  of  the  mother- 
church  to  share  in  certain  legacies  that  had  been  left  to 
the  Philadelphia  body. 

The  church  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  Welsh  Tract 
church  was  organized  in  Pembrokeshire,  Wales,  in  1701, 
and  emigrated  the  same  year  to  Pennsylvania.  They  first 
settled  in  the  Pennepek  region,  but  having  their  own  pas- 
tor, Thomas  Griffith,  and  not  agreeing  in  all  points  with 
the  Pennepek  church,  they  continued  their  separate  exist- 
ence. In  1703  they  received  a  large  grant  of  land  on  the 
Delaware,  known  as  the  Welsh  Tract,  where  they  greatly 
prospered,  and  were  able  to  furnish  to  the  denomination 
some  of  its  ablest  ministers  and  to  send  forth  a  strong 
colony  to  South  Carolina  (see  previous  chapter).  Accord- 
ing to  Morgan  Edwards,  this  church  "  was  the  principal,  if 
not  .sole,  means  of  introducing  singing,  imposition  of  hands, 
church  covenant,  etc.,  among  the  Baptists  in  the  Middle 
States."  Thomas  Griffith,  pastor  of  the  church,  labored 
zealously  for  the  promotion  of  the  laying  on  of  hands,  and 
by  I  7 12  "  all  the  ministers  "  in  the  Jerseys  "  had  submitted 
to  the  ordinance." 

Other  churches  were  organized  before  the  close  of  this 
period,  as  follows :  The  church  at  the  Great  Valley,  made 


Chap,  vii.]  MENA'ONITES  AXD   DUNKARDS.  20g 

up  chiefly  of  Welsh  Baptists,  who  had  been  supplied  with 
gospel  privileges  by  the  Welsh  Tract  church,  was  consti- 
tuted in  171 1,  and  chose  Hugh  Davis,  an  ordained  minister 
from  Wales,  to  be  their  pastor;  the  Hopewell,  N.  J.,  church 
was  organized  in  171 5,  of  those  who  had  been  members 
of  the  Middletown,  Philadelphia,  and  Pennepek  churches, 
and  was  for  some  time  dependent  on  the  visits  of  neigh- 
boring pastors  ;  the  Brandywine  church,  already  mentioned, 
composed  chiefly  of  those  who  had  been  Keithians,  was  con- 
stituted in  I  71 5,  and  was  largely  dependent  on  the  Welsh 
Tract  for  gospel  privileges ;  the  church  at  Montgomery, 
county  of  Philadelphia,  was  made  up  of  Welsh  Baptists, 
whose  numbers  were  increased  through  the  labors  of  Abel 
Morgan.  The  organization  of  this  church  was  efl"ected  in 
1719.      Benjamin  Griffith  became  its  pastor  in  1725. 

The  antipedobaptist  life  of  Pennsylvania  was  augmented 
by  the  immigration  of  large  numbers  of  Dutch  Mennonites, 
1692  onward.  By  1724  they  had  five  large  congregations 
and  sixteen  ministers.  In  1719  about  twenty  families  of 
Dunkards  reached  Pennsylvania.  They  had  originated  at 
Schwaitzenau,  Germany,  in  1708,  under  the  leadership  of 
Alexander  Mack,  and  had  introduced  believers'  baptism 
anew,  after  the  manner  of  John  Smyth  and  Roger  Williams. 
They  practiced  trine  immersion,  and  attempted  to  follow 
rigidly  apostolic  precept  and  example  as  regards  refusal  to 
go  to  law,  feet-\Aashing,  the  kiss  of  peace,  the  love-feast, 
anointing  with  oil,  refusal  to  accept  interest  on  money, 
etc.  The  entire  body  came  to  America  (1719  and  1729). 
About  I  730  a  schism  occurred  in  tlie  Dunkard  body  on  the 
Sabbath  question,  community  of  goods,  etc.,  the  Sabbata- 
rian party  forming  the  Ephrata  community  at  Lancaster, 
Pa.  It  is  uncertain  to  what  extent  these  bodies  influenced 
the  Baptist  movement ;  but  as  they  were  very  exclusive 
and  fixed  in  their  customs  it  is  unlikely  that  many  of  them, 


2  10  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

especially  in  the  earlier  time,  passed  over  to  the  Baptists, 
or  that  many  Baptists  passed  over  to  them. 

All  the  conditions  were  present  in  Pennsylvania  and  the 
Jerseys  for  the  development  of  strong  and  well-ordered 
Baptist  churches.  Religious  liberty  reheved  Baptists  of 
the  necessity  of  being  always  on  the  defensive  and  spend- 
ing their  strength  in  the  effort  to  exist.  There  was  no 
overshadowing  and  domineering  church  party  to  cause 
them  to  be  looked  down  upon  as  sectaries  and  intruders 
and  to  look  upon  themselves  as  martyrs  and  aliens.  While 
the  Quakers  were  numerous  and  in  many  cases  wealthy, 
they  were  for  the  most  part  free  from  arrogance  and  intol- 
erance, and  Baptists  were  able  to  be  and  feel  themselves 
citizens  in  the  fullest  sense.  This  was  true,  also,  of  Rhode 
Island ;  but  Rhode  Island  Baptists  were  for  the  most  part 
such  as  had  had  experience  of  New  England  intolerance, 
and  the  materials  they  drew  from  in  the  extension  of 
their  work  were  of  a  thoroughly  heterogeneous  character. 
They  were  likely  to  emphasize  liberty  and  independence 
at  the  expense  of  organization  and  interdependence.  The 
prevailing  Welsh  element  among  Pennsylvania  Baptists  had 
come  from  churches  well  grounded  in  an  evangelical  type 
of  Calvinism  and  in  Baptist  principles  and  practices.  They 
combined  evangelical  zeal  and  fervor  \x\i\\  thoroughgo- 
ing denominational  self-respect.  The  slight  admixture  of 
Rhode  Island  Baptists  with  the  prevailing  Welsh  element 
tended  to  give  to  the  resultan.t  Baptist  type  a  juster  sense 
of  the  importance  of  emphasizing  the  doctrine  of  religious 
liberty  than  might  otherwise  have  found  place. 

No  agency  did  so  much  for  the  solidifying  and  extension 
of  the  Baptist  denomination  in  the  American  colonies  as 
the  Philadelphia  Association.  That  it  could  be  formed 
and  could  from  the  beginning  secure  the  cooperation  of  a 
number  of  churches  in  efforts  to  promote  discipline,  right 


Chai'.  VII.]  PHILADELPHIA    ASSOCIATIOX.  211 

church  order,  soundness  of  teaching",  and  aggressive  evan- 
gelization, argues  the  antecedent  existence  in  the  churches 
concerned  of  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  these  things  and 
a  wiUingness  to  Hmit  the  exercise  of  their  independency 
for  the  sake  of  securing  these  ends. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  general  meetings  had  been 
held  for  evangelistic  and  communion  purposes.  These  be- 
gan under  the  ministry  of  Keach,  when  a  number  of  widely 
scattered  bands  of  believers  were  still  connected  with  the 
Pennepek  church.  After  the  organization  of  these  bands 
into  churches  it  is  probable  that  such  meetings  were  con- 
tinued, all  who  could  gathering  and  participating.  In  i  707 
the  general  meeting  assumed  in  part  the  character  of  an 
Association.  The  following  account  is  from  the  records 
of  the  Pennepek  church:  "Before  our  general  meeting, 
held  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  seventh  month,  1 707,  it  was 
concluded  by  the  several  congregations  of  our  judgment, 
to  make  a  choice  of  some  particular  brethren,  such  as  they 
thought  most  capable  in  every  congregation,  and  those  to 
meet  at  the  yearly  meeting  to  consult  about  such  things 
as  were  wanting  in  the  churches,  and  to  set  them  in  order; 
and  these  brethren  meeting  at  the  said  yearly  meeting 
.  .  .  agreed  to  continue  the  meeting  till  the  third  day 
following  in  the  work  of  the  public  ministry.  It  was  then 
agreed,  that  a  person  that  is  a  stranger,  that  has  neither 
letter  of  recommendation,  nor  is  known  to  be  a  person 
gifted,  and  of  a  good  conversation,  shall  not  be  admitted 
to  preach,  nor  be  entertained  as  a  member  in  any  of  the 
baptized  congregations  in  communion  with  each  other. 
It  was  also  concluded,  that  if  any  difference  shall  happen 
between  any  member  and  the  church  he  belongs  unto,  and 
they  cannot  agree,  then  the  person  so  grieved  may,  at  the 
general  meeting,  appeal  to  the  brethren  of  the  several  con- 
gregations, and  with  such  as  they  shall  nominate,  to  decide 


2  12  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'kr.  i. 

the  difference  ;  that  the  church  and  the  person  so  grieved 
do  fully  acquiesce  in  their  determination."  Subsequent 
records  show  that  this  latter  arrangement  was  carried  out 
with  great  consistency,  wisdom,  and  efficiency,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  churches  were  thereby  saved  from 
wrecking. 

It  is  recorded  that  in  i  710  and  the  year  following  "  sev- 
eral able  men,  ministers  and  elders,  .  .  .  came  over  from 
South  Wales  and  the  West  of  England — as  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Jenkins,  Mr.  John  Burrows,  Mr.  Abel  Morgan, 
and  some  that  had  been  ruling  elders  in  the  churches  they 
came  from — all  of  them  men  long  concerned  in  the  affairs 
of  churches  and  associations  in  their  own  countries." 

The  first  important  case  of  discipline  seems  to  have  been 
that  of  the  Philadelphia  church  and  Thomas  Selby.  The 
finding  of  the  disciplinary  committee  of  the  Association 
was  "  that  the  way  and  manner  of  dealing  with  each  other 
hath  been  from  the  rule  of  the  Gospel,  and  unbecoming 
Christians  in  many  respects,  and  in  some  too  shameful 
here  to  enumerate  the  particulars.  And  first,  we  judge  it 
expedient  in  point  of  justice,  that  Mr.  Thomas  Selby  be 
paid  the  money  subscribed  to  him  by  the  members  of  this 
church,  and  he  be  discharged  from  any  further  service  in 
the  work  of  the  ministry  ;  he  being  a  person,  in  our  judg- 
ment, not  likely  for  the  promotion  of  the  Gospel  in  these 
parts  of  the  country;  and  considering  his  miscarriages,  we 
judge  he  may  not  be  allowed  to  communion.  And  sec- 
ondly, as  to  the  members  of  this  congregation,  we  do  ap- 
prehend the  best  way  is,  that  each  party  offended  do  freely 
forgive  each  other  all  personal  and  other  offences  that  may 
have  arisen  on  this  occasion,  and  that  they  be  buried  in 
oblivion  ;  and  that  those  who  shall  for  future  mention  or 
stir  up  any  of  the  former  differences,  so  as  to  tend  to  con- 
tention, shall  be  deemed  disorderly  persons,  and  be  dealt 


Chap.  VII.]  QUERIES  AXSIVERED.  213 

with  as  such.  And  thirdly,  that  those  that  exempted 
themselves  from  their  communion  on  this  account,  except 
as  above,  be  allowed  to  take  their  places  orderly  without 
contention,  and  such  as  refuse,  to  be  deemed  disorderly 
persons."  This  action  is  quoted  to  show  the  nature  and 
spirit  of  the  Associational  work  in  its  early  stages. 

In  1722  it  is  decided  that  the  churches  shall  "make  in- 
quiry among  themselves,  if  they  have  any  young  persons 
hopeful  for  the  ministry,  and  inclinable  for  learning,"  such 
cases  to  be  reported  to  Mr.  Abel  Morgan  for  education  on 
Mr.  Hollis's  account. 

In  1723  churches  without  ministers  are  advised  to  meet 
for  devotional  exercises,  and  to  "  have  due  regard  to  order 
and  decency  in  the  exercise  of  those  gifts  at  all  times,  and 
not  to  suffer  any  to  exercise  their  gifts  in  a  mixed  multi- 
tude until  tried  and  approved  of  first  by  the  church."  It 
is  further  "  agreed,  that  the  proposal  drawn  up  by  the  sev- 
eral ministers,  and  signed  by  many  others,  in  reference  to 
the  examination  of  all  gifted  brethren  and  ministers  that 
come  in  here  from  other  places,  be  duly  put  in  practice,  we 
having  found  the  evil  of  neglecting  a  true  and  previous 
scrutiny  in  those  affairs." 

Several  queries  were  sent  in  to  the  meeting  of  1724. 
The  first  was  "  concerning  the  fourth  commandment, 
whether  changed,  altered,  or  diminished."  It  is  an.swered 
by  referring  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  1689,  "owned 
by  us,"  where  the  "Lord's  day"  is  declared  to  be  "the 
Christian  Sabbath,"  "  to  be  continued  to  the  end  of  the 
world,"  "  the  observation  of  the  last  day  of  the  week  being 
abolished."  A  negative  answer  is  given  to  the  query, 
"  Whether  a  believer  may  marry  an  unbeliever,  without 
coming  under  church  censure  for  it?"  It  was  also  "con- 
cluded and  agreed,  that  a  church  ought  to  be  unanimous 
in  giving  their  voice  in  choosing  and  setting  up,  or  depos^ 


2  14  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  i. 

ing  one  set  up,  to  act  in  any  church  office.  .  .  .  Any  act 
of  that  nature  commenced  without  common  consent,  is 
void,  and  hath  no  power  in  it."  As  an  indication  of  the 
wise  care  that  characterized  the  action  of  this  body,  it 
may  be  mentioned  that  at  the  same  session  it  was  decided 
that  in  the  letters  of  the  churches  "  sahitations,  contempla- 
tions, congratulations,  etc.,"  should  be  given  on  one  page, 
to  be  read  in  the  open  meeting,  while  "  complaints,  queries, 
grievances,  etc.,"  should  "be  written  apart"  and  "be 
opened  and  read  to  the  Association  only." 

In  1 726  the  Association  decided  that  "  in  case  there 
might  be  a  division  ...  in  any  church  in  Great  Britain, 
and  each  party  combining  together  in  church  form,  each 
being  sound  in  the  faith,  and  during  the  separation  both 
parties  recommend  members  unto  us  here,  as  in  full  com- 
munion with  them,"  the  churches  should  "  take  no  further 
notice  of  the  letters  by  such  persons  brought  here,  than  to 
satisfy  themselves  that  such  are  baptized  persons  and  of  a 
regular  conversation,  and  to  take  such  into  church  cove- 
nant as  if  they  had  not  been  members  of  any  church 
before." 

It  has  been  noticed  that  in  the  early  history  of  the 
denomination  in  Pennsyhania  differences  of  opinion  ap- 
peared with  respect  to  the  la\ing  on  of  hands.  By  i  729 
practical  unanimity  seems  to  have  been  reached  in  favor 
of  the  rite.  The  follovx^ng  query  was  answered  in  the 
negali\"e  :  "  Suppose  a  gifted  brother,  who  is  esteemed  an 
orderly  minister  by  or  among  those  that  are  against  the 
laying  on  of  hands  in  any  respect  [even  in  ordination  to 
the  ministry,  seems  to  be  the  thought],  should  happen  to 
come  among  our  church  ;  whether  we  may  allow  such  an 
one  to  administer  the  ordinances  ...    ?" 

Sabbatarianism  was  evidently  giving  some  trouble  in 
I  730.      There  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  churches 


CiiAi-.  VII.]  ./    DEAKTII   OF   PASTORS.  215 

to  allow  full  liberty  to  such  as  persisted,  on  conscientious 
grounds,  in  observing  the  seventh  day ;  but  such  as  with- 
drew from  the  church  and  associated  themselves  actively 
with  the  Seventh-day  people  should  be  disowned  "  in  as 
moderate  a  way  and  manner"  as  possible. 

In  1 73 1  and  1732  much  anxiety  was  expressed  on  ac- 
count of  the  dearth  of  pastors,  and  in  the  latter  year  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer  w-as  appointed  to  be  kept  by  all 
the  churches  "  that  the  Lord  may  gift  some  among  our- 
selves, such  as  may  be  serviceable;  or  order,  in  the  course 
of  his  providence,  some  such  to  come  among  us  from  else- 
where." In  1736  it  was  voted  that  a  church  at  a  distance 
should  not  receive  into  membership  a  person  living  in  the 
neighborhood  of  another  church. 

The  period  closes  amid  prosperity,  one  hundred  and 
eleven  having  been  received  by  baptism  during  the  year 
ending  with  September,  i  740. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    FIRST    BAPTISTS    OF    MAINE,    SOUTH    CAROLINA, 

VIRGINIA,  NORTH    CAROLINA,  CONNECTICUT, 

AND    NEW    YORK.^ 

The  reason  for  coupling  two  regions  so  remote  from 
each  other  as  Maine  and  South  Carohna  will  appear  in  the 
course  of  the  narrative. 

In  Januar}',  1682,  the  Boston  Baptist  church  received  a 
letter  written  on  behalf  of  a  body  of  Baptists  who  had 
gathered  themselves  for  Christian  worship  at  Kittery,  in 
the  province  of  Maine,  by  Humphrey  Churchwood,  and 
borne,  it  would  seem,  by  one  of  the  members  of  this 
body,  William  Screven  by  name.  After  words  of  saluta- 
tion, in  apostolic  style,  the  writer  proceeds:  "  Most  dearly 
beloved  brethren  and  friends,  as  I  am,  through  free  grace, 
a  member  of  the  same  body  and  joined  to  the  same  Head, 
Christ  Jesus,  I  thought  it  my  special  duty  to  inform  you 
that  the  tender  mercy  of  God  in  and  through  Jesus  Christ, 
hath  shined  upon  us  by  giving  light  to  them  that  sit  in 
darkness,  and  to  guide  our  feet  in  the  way  of  peace ;  for 
a  great  door,  and  effectual,  is  opened  in  these  parts,  and 
there  are  many  adversaries.  .  .  .  Therefore  I  signify  unto 
you,  that  here  are  a  competent  number  of  well-established 
people  whose  hearts  the  Lord  hath  opened  insomuch  that 
they  have  gladly  received  the  word  and  do  seriously  pro- 

1  Backus  ;  Burrage  ;  "  Hist.  First  Bapt.  Ch.  of  S.  Ca.  ;  "  "  Early  Rec.  Prov. 
of  Maine,"  vol.  iv.  ;  Semple  ;  Armitage  ;  Trumbull ;  True  ;  Winsor,  "  Nar.  and 
Cr.  Hist,  of  Am.,"  vols.  iii.  and  v. 

216 


Chap,  viii.]  SCREVEN'S   OIWhYATIOy.  2l7 

fess  their  hearty  desire  to  the  following  of  Christ  and  to 
partake  of  all  his  holy  ordinances,  according  to  his  blessed 
institution  and  divine  appointment ;  therefore  I  present 
my  ardent  desire  to  your  serious  consideration,  which  is, 
if  the  Lord  see  it  fit,  to  have  a  gospel  church  planted  here 
in  this  place;  and  in  order  hereunto,  we  think  it  meet  that 
our  beloved  brother,  William  Screven,  who  is,  through 
free  grace,  gifted  and  endued  with  the  spirit  of  veterans, 
[and  has  been]  called  by  us,  who  are  visibly  joined  to  the 
church.  When  our  beloved  brother  is  ordained  according 
to  the  sacred  rule  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  our  humble  petition 
is  to  God  that  he  will  be  pleased  to  carry  on  this  good 
work  to  the  glory  of  his  holy  name,  and  to  the  enlarging 
of  the  kingdom  of  his  beloved  Son." 

The  Boston  brethren  were  not  slow  to  respond  to  this 
request.  Eight  days  after  Churchwood's  letter  was  writ- 
ten the  church  issued  the  following  certificate,  signed 
by  Isaac  Hull  and  John  Farnum  :  "  To  all  whom  it  may 
concern:  These  are  to  certify,  that  our  beloved  brother 
William  Screven  is  a  member  in  communion  with  us,  and 
having  had  trial  of  his  gifts  among  us,  and  finding  him  to 
be  a  man  whom  God  hath  qualified  and  furnished  with 
the  gifts  of  his  Holy  Spirit  and  grace,  enabling  him  to 
open  and  apply  the  word  of  God,  which  through  the 
blessing  of  the  Lord  Jesus  may  be  useful  in  his  hand,  for 
the  begetting  and  building  up  of  souls  in  the  knowledge 
of  God,  do  therefore  appoint,  approve,  and  encourage  him, 
to  exercise  his  gift  in  the  place  where  he  lives,  or  else- 
where, as  the  providence  of  God  may  cast  him;  and  so 
the  Lord  help  him  to  eye  his  glory  in  all  things,  and  to 
walk  humbly  in  the  fear  of  his  name." 

From  Churchwood's  letter  it  seems  evident  that  a  body 
of  baptized  believers  had  already  been  organized  and  had 
appointed  Screven  to  the  pastoral  office  ;   but  that  they 


2i8  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

did  not  consider  themselves  competent  to  administer  the 
ordinances  until  their  minister  elect  should  have  received 
ordination  at  the  hands  of  a  regularly  constituted  church, 
and  until  the  new  organization  should  have  been  recog- 
nized by  an  older.  It  is  probable  that  most  or  all  of  those 
who  joined  in  the  Kittery  organization  had  been  members 
of  Baptist  churches  in  England.  It  is  highly  probable 
that  the  pastor  of  the  Kittery  church  is  identical  with  the 
William  Scriven  who,  as  a  representative  of  the  Somerton 
church,  was  among  the  signers  of  the  "  Confession  of  the 
Faith  of  several  Churches  of  Christ  in  the  County  of  Somer- 
set [England],  and  of  some  Churches  in  the  Counties  near 
adjacent,"  set  forth  in  1656.  As  he  was  born  about  1629 
he  was  twenty^five  years  of  age  at  the  time.  The  fact 
that  the  settlement  effected  by  him  in  South  Carolina  was 
named  Somerton  would  go  far  toward  establishing  this 
identification  ;  but  the  supposition  that  it  was  his  father 
who  signed  the  Confession  would  meet  the  case  equally 
well.  It  is  almost  certain  that  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Somerton  church.  The  date  of  his  arrival  in  Maine  is 
unknown,  but  it  must  have  been  at  some  time  previous  to 
November  15,  1673,  when  his  name  appears  in  a  deed  at 
Kittery.  The  following  year  he  was  married  to  a  daughter 
of  Robert  Cutts,  a  prosperous  ship-builder,  one  of  whose 
brothers  was  the  first  president  of  New  Hampshire.  This 
would  seem  to  have  been  Screven's  second  marriage,  as 
a  son  of  his  named  William  was  a  member  of  the  General 
Court  in  1694. 

As  early  as  1675  we  find  him  presented  by  the  grand 
jury  "  for  not  frequenting  the  public  meeting  according  to 
law  on  the  Lord's  da}'s."  It  was  shown,  however,  that 
he  attended  another  meeting  of  the  established  religion. 
After  serving  in  a  number  of  other  public  offices,  he  was 
appointed  a  deputy  from  Kittery  in  1681. 


Chap,  viii.]  PERSECUTION  AT  KITTERY.  219   ■ 

Screven  prolonged  his  absence  in  connection  with  his 
ordination  till  some  time  after  the  25th  of  January,  for  on 
that  date  Churchwood  wrote  to  Boston,  referring  some- 
what impatiently  to  his  failure  to  return  and  take  charge 
of  the  persecuted  flock:  "By  his  long  absence  from  us, 
he  has  given  great  advantage  to  our  adversaries  to  triumph 
and  to  endeavor  to  bear  down  that  good  beginning  which 
God,  by  his  poor  instrument,  hath  begun  among  us :  and 
our  magistrate,  Mr.  Hooke,  is  almost  every  day  summon- 
ing and  threatening  the  people  by  fines  and  other  penal- 
ties, if  ever  they  come  to  our  meeting  any  more,  five 
shillings  for  every  such  offence."  Screven  returned  to 
Kittery  shortly  afterward,  and  little  time  had  elapsed  be- 
fore he  was  summoned  before  the  court  "  upon  rumors 
and  reports  from  a  common  fame  of  soine  presumptuous 
speeches  about  the  holy  ordinance  of  baptism  which  should 
pass  from  him."  He  admitted  that  he  conceived  infant 
baptism  "  no  ordinance  of  God,  but  an  invention  of  man  "  ; 
but  did  not  admit  that  he  had  "  said  it  was  an  ordinance 
of  the  devil."  He  "  put  us  to  prove  by  any  positive  com- 
mand in  the  Gospel,  or  Scriptures,  that  there  was  infant 
baptism,  and,  according  to  our  understanding,  he  endeav- 
ored to  make  good  the  matter  of  his  words,  and  to  put  the 
manner  of  them  into  a  smoother  dress,  mincing  the  mat- 
ter, as  Edward  Rishworth  told  him  ;  whose  reply  was  that 
mincing  it  was  to  put  it  in  better  terms  than  it  deserved, 
charging  Mr.  Hooke  with  prejudice,  who  brought  him 
thither,  and  desired  not  to  be  judged  by  him."  A  bond 
of  one  hundred  pounds  was  required  for  his  release,  which 
Screven  refused  to  furnish,  accepting  imprisonment  in- 
stead. 

On  April  12th  he  was  tried  before  the  court  at  York, 
fined  ten  pounds,  forbidden  to  hold  any  further  meetings 
in  the  province,  and  ordered  to  conform  in  religious  mat- 


2  20  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

ters  to  "  the  laws  here  established  in  the  Province,  upon 
such  penalties  as  the  law  requires  upon  his  neglect  of  the 
premises." 

On  June  28th  following  he  appeared  before  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  province.  "  The  Court  tendered  him  lib- 
erty to  return  home  to  his  famil}',  in  case  he  would  for- 
bear such  kind  of  disorderly  and  turbulent  practices  and 
amend  for  the  future.  But  he  refusing,  the  Court  required 
him  to  give  bond  for  his  good  behavior,  and  to  forbear 
such  contemptuous  behavior  for  the  future,  and  ordered 
that  the  delinquent  should  stand  committed  until  the  judg- 
ment of  this  Court  herein  be  fulfilled.  After  which  said 
Screven,  coming  into  the  Court,  did,  in  the  presence  of  the 
said  Court,  and  president,  promise  and  engage  to  depart 
out  of  this  Province  in  a  very  short  time." 

As  no  definite  time  had  been  fixed  for  his  departure, 
and  as  his  own  business  interests  as  well  as  the  interests 
of  the  little  society  of  Baptists  were  at  stake,  he  doubtless 
felt  justified  in  putting  the  most  liberal  interpretation  on 
the  requirement  of  the  court  to  which  he  had  assented. 
He  seems  to  have  been  particularly  anxious  that  the  or- 
ganization of  the  church  should  be  completed  in  the  most 
regular  fashion  before  his  departure.  In  September  he 
requested  the  Boston  church  to  send  the  pastor  and  other 
delegates  to  assist  them  in  entering  upon  a  church  estate. 
His  mother-in-law  had  accepted  Baptist  views  and  wished 
to  be  baptized.  "  We  all  conceive  it  will  be  more  honor- 
able and  expedient  that  it  be  done  by  the  Elder  Hull,  that 
is  so  truly  praised  here.  I  pray  you  to  consider  these 
things.  Both  may  be  done  [the  organization  of  the 
church  and  the  baptism]  when  the  messengers  come  up 
to  us."  It  is  probable  that  Hull  had  visited  the  Kittery 
Baptists  before  this  correspondence  began.  It  may  be 
that  the  growth  of  Baptist  sentiment  had  been  due  chiefly 


Chap,  viii.]  SCREJ'EX  GOES    TO    CAROLINA.  221 

to  his  evangelistic  efforts.  Again  the  Boston  church,  ever 
ready  for  Christian  service,  responded  to  the  request  of  the 
Kittery  Baptists,  and  on  September  25th  Wilham  Screven, 
elder,  Humphrey  Churchwood,  deacon,  Robert  Williams, 
John  Morgandy,  Richard  Cutts,  Timothy  Davis,  Leonard 
Drown,  William  Adams,  Humphrey  Azell,  George  Litten, 
and  a  number  of  sisters  united  in  signing  a  solemn  cove- 
nant of  fellowship  and  service.  It  has  commonly  been 
supposed  that  Screven  and  his  associates  left  Kittery  for 
South  Carolina  at  the  end  of  1682  or  the  beginning  of 
1683.  The  records  of  the  province  show,  however,  that 
they  were  still  at  Kittery  as  late  as  October  9,  1683,  when 
the  following  entry  occurs :  "  William  Screven,  being 
brought  before  this  Court  for  not  departing  this  Province 
according  to  a  former  confession  of  Court,  and  his  own 
choice,  and  denying  now  to  fulfill  it,  this  Court  doth  de- 
clare that  the  sentence  of  the  General  Assembly,  bearing 
date  the  28th  of  June,  1682,  stands  good  and  in  full  force 
against  the  said  William  Screven  during  the  Court's  pleas- 
ure." Some  months  later.  May  27,  1684,  an  order  was 
issued  for  Screven  "  to  appear  before  the  General  Assem- 
bly in  June  next."  It  is  possible,  though  not  probable, 
that  the  last  order  was  intended  for  his  son  William,  who 
remained  at  Kittery  after  his  father's  departure.  But  we 
have  no  evidence  of  collision  with  the  authorities  on  the 
part  of  the  younger  Screven,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  he 
had  reached  his  majority  at  this  time.  With  a  number  of 
his  brethren  Screven  made  his  way  to  South  Carolina, 
where  he  formed  a  settlement  on  the  Cooper  River,  a  few 
miles  above  its  junction  with  the  Ashley  River,  where 
Charleston  was  afterward  formed.  No  writer  consulted 
has  suggested  a  reason  for  this  choice  of  a  settlement,  be- 
yond the  fact  that  the  colony  had  been  founded  on  broad 
principles  of  toleration.      It  is  probable  that  through  his 


222  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

wife's  family,  who  had  Hved  for  years  at  Barbadoes,  Screven 
knew  of  the  colony  of  ninety-three  persons  that  left  Eng- 
land in  1669  under  the  leadership  of  William  Sayle,  who 
had  been  governor  of  Bermuda,  and  who  was  described 
by  a  contemporary  as  a  "  Puritan  and  Nonconformist, 
whose  religious  bigotry,  advanced  age,  and  failing  health 
promised  badly  for  the  discharge  of  the  task  before  him." 
After  various  disasters  and  a  short  sojourn  in  Bermuda, 
they  sailed  for  South  Carohna,  where  in  April,  1670,  they 
settled  on  the  Ashley  River,  and  named  their  settlement 
Charlestown  in  honor  of  the  king.  At  about  the  same  time 
Sir  John  Yeamans  arrived  as  governor,  bringing  with  him 
the  first  negro  slaves  introduced  into  the  province.  In 
1677  he  ordered  the  laying  out  of  a  town  at  the  junction 
of  the  Ashley  and  Cooper  Rivers,  and  thither  the  older 
Charlestown  gradually  removed.  In  1674,  after  the  con- 
quest of  the  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam  (New  York)  by 
the  English,  many  of  the  former  sought  a  new  home 
in  Carolina  and  settled  at  Jamestown  on  the  Ashley.  The 
charter  of  the  colony  provided  for  liberty  of  conscience  ; 
but  though  the  Puritans  and  dissenters  were  in  the  major- 
ity, the  cavaliers  and  churchmen  were  the  official  and  priv- 
ileged class,  and  had  chief  control  of  the  resources  of  the 
province.  For  some  time  there  was  much  of  friction  be- 
tween these  two  elements,  and  the  aristocratic  class  did 
not  fail  to  show  contempt  for  the  humbler  Puritanism. 

In  1682-83  there  was  another  accession  to  the  popula- 
tion, which  meant  much  to  the  Baptist  cause  in  South 
Carolina  and  which  may  have  been  the  determining  reason 
for  Screven's  going  thither.  "  The  most  valuable  addition 
to  its  [Carolina's]  population,"  says  a  competent  au- 
thority (Grahame,  "  Colonial  Hist,  of  the  U.  S.,"  i.,  372), 
"  was  supplied  by  the  immigration  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  pious  and  respectable   dissenters    from   Somerset- 


Chap.  VIII.]        EARLY  BAPTISTS   OF  CAROLINA.  223 

shire  in  England.  This  band  of  emigrants  was  led  by 
Humphrey  Blake,  the  brother  ...  of  the  renowned  Ad- 
miral Blake.  .  .  .  Humphrey  Blake  was  a  worthy,  con- 
scientious, and  liberal  man ;  and  willingly  devoted  his  for- 
tune to  facilitate  the  retirement  of  a  number  of  dissenters 
with  whom  he  was  connected,  from  the  persecutions  they 
endured  in  England,  and  the  greater  calamities  they 
apprehended  from  the  probable  accession  of  the  Duke 
of  York  to  the  throne."  Among  these  immigrants  was 
Joseph  Blake,  a  nephew  of  the  admiral  and  a  trustee  of 
Lord  Berkeley,  one  of  the  lords  proprietors  of  the  province. 
Lady  Blake  and  her  mother.  Lady  Axtell,were  staunch  Bap- 
tists, and  Joseph  Blake  himself  was  thoroughly  sympathetic 
with  Baptist  principles.  He  was  soon  to  take  a  leading 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony,  and  was  for  several  years 
its  governor.  He  had  to  do  (along  with  Paul  Grimball,  a 
Baptist,  and  others)  with  the  revision  of  the  constitution, 
and  his  influence  was  uncompromisingly  on  the  side  of 
religious  liberty.  During  his  governorship,  in  1696,  the 
Huguenots,  who  had  come  to  Carolina  in  large  numbers 
after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  (1685),  were 
"incorporated  with  the  freemen  of  the  colony."  This 
action  carried  with  it  religious  liberty  for  all  but  papists. 

If  the  later  date  which  the  public  records  of  the  province 
of  Maine  seem  to  fix  for  the  departure  of  Screven  be  ac- 
cepted, he  at  once  exchanged  the  harassments  of  Maine 
for  a  delightful  and  most  promising  field  of  labor.  In  any 
case,  he  soon  found  himself  surrounded  by  a  considerable 
number  of  sympathetic  and  highly  influential  souls,  with 
freedom  to  exercise  his  ministry  according  to  the  dictates 
of  his  conscience. 

About  1683  a  colony  of  north  Britons  came  to  Carolina 
under  the  patronage  of  Lord  Cardross.  They  are  said  to 
have  been  mostly  Baptists.     They  settled  on  Port  Royal 


2  24  '^^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

Island  and  claimed  independence  of  the  Charleston  Court. 
Having  failed  to  sustain  this  claim  Lord  Cardross  returned 
to  England,  and  the  population,  being  exposed  to  the  hos- 
tilities of  Indians  and  Spaniards,  removed  (before  1686) 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Edisto  River.  The  Baptist  part  of 
the  company  became  members  of  Screven's  church  at 
Somerton.  Thus  from  many  quarters,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  a  considerable  band  of  zealous  Baptists,  many  of 
them  influentially  connected,  was  gathered  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Charleston. 

By  1693  a  large  proportion  of  the  members  of  the 
church  had  been  drawn  by  the  growing  commercial  im- 
portance of  Charleston  to  take  up  their  residence  there, 
and  it  was  thought  wise  to  transfer  their  meeting  to  the 
town.  Until  they  built  a  house  of  worship  they  "  held 
their  worship  at  the  house  of  one  WiUiam  Chapman  in 
King  Street."  The  lot  on  which  the  present  building 
stands  was  presented  to  the  church  in  1699  by  William 
Elliott.  The  Baptists  were  among  the  first  to  occupy  this 
region  with  organized  Christian  work.  An  Episcopal 
minister  seems  to  have  been  on  the  ground  as  early  as 
1680.  Congregationalists  from  England  and  New  Eng- 
land, French  Protestants,  and  Quakers  soon  had  their  con- 
gregations and  built  their  houses  of  worship  in  what  was 
becoming  the  flourishing  city  of  Charleston.  In  1698, 
under  strong  Episcopal  pressure,  Governor  Blake  led  the 
dissenters  to  agree  to  a  provision  "for  settling  a  perpet- 
ual provision  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  a  year, 
with  a  house  and  other  advantages,  on  the  Episcopal  minis- 
ter "  of  Charleston  (Grahame,  i.,  388).  It  was  a  measure 
fraught  with  evil,  but  was  doubtless  regarded  as  a  politi- 
cal necessity  at  the  time. 

In  1700,  just  as  the  Baptists  were  entering  their  new 
meeting-house,  they  adopted  the  Confession  of  Faith  set 


Chai>.  vui.]  religious  DESriTL'TIOX.  225 

forth  in  1689  by  "the  ministers  and  messengers  of,  and 
concerned  for,  upwards  of  one  hundred  congregations  in 
England  and  Wales  (denying  Arminianism),"  and,  by  rea- 
son of  its  subsequent  adoption  (with  slight  modifications) 
by  the  Philadelphia  Association,  known  in  America  as  the 
Philadelphia  Confession. 

There  was  at  this  time  a  dearth  of  gospel  privileges  in 
CaroHna  outside  of  Charleston  and  its  vicinity.  The  col- 
ony had  a  population  of  about  fifty- five  hundred,  of  whom 
three  thousand  were  residents  of  Charleston.  Outside  of 
Charleston  there  is  said  to  have  been  at  that  date  no 
house  of  worship  and  no  school.  The  Baptists  were  easily 
foremost  in  evangelical  zeal.  Screven,  though  advanced 
in  age,  was  abundant  in  labors,  and  the  Charleston  church 
sent  forth  of  its  own  numbers  and  procured  from  other 
communities  those  who  carried  the  gospel  to  the  neglected 
planters.  The  English  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  furnished  a  number  of  mission- 
aries from  1707  onward,  but  they  found  that  in  most  cases 
they  had  been  preceded  by  the  Baptists  (Humphrey, 
"  Historical  Account,"  pp.  88,  95,  108,  etc.). 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  mistake 
of  the  dissenting  interest  in  not  contending  more  earnestly 
for  equality  of  rights  and  privileges  became  manifest.  The 
intolerance  of  the  proprietaries  had  become  more  and  more 
aggressive.  In  i  704,  under  the  direction  of  Lord  Gran- 
ville, two  laws  were  enacted,  the  aim  of  which  was  to  de- 
prive dissenters  of  all  civil  and  religious  rights  and  privi- 
leges. According  to  the  first,  "  All  persons  that  shall 
hereafter  be  chosen  members  of  the  Commons'  House  of 
Assembly,  and  sit  in  the  same,"  were  required  "  to  take 
the  oaths  and  sub.scribe  the  declaration  appointed  by  this 
bill,  and  to  conform  to  the  religious  worship  of  this  Prov- 
ince, according  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  to  receive 


226  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the  rites 
of  the  said  Church."  It  was  provided  that  in  case  the 
person  receiving  the  highest  number  of  votes  should 
refuse  to  quahfy  by  conformity  to  the  Church  of  England, 
the  person  receiving  the  next  highest  number  should  be 
declared  elected,  and  so  on  until  the  names  voted  for 
should  have  been  exhausted.  Thus  it  would  be  possible 
for  a  person  receiving  a  small  fraction  of  the  votes  cast  to 
act  as  representative  of  the  people.  This  act  was  fol- 
lowed up  on  the  reassembling  of  the  Commons  by  an  Act 
establishing  Religious  Worship,  which  provided  for  the 
creation  of  a  lay  commission  for  the  trial  of  ecclesiastical 
causes.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  some  churchmen  strenu- 
ously opposed  the  first  bill  on  the  ground  of  its  injustice, 
and  that  many  more  opposed  the  second  as  an  unwarrant- 
able invasion  of  ecclesiastical  rights.  The  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  refused  to 
send  more  missionaries  until  the  latter  act  should  be  re- 
pealed. The  tyranny  of  the  party  in  power  was  so  rep- 
resented to  the  House  of  Lords  that  the  queen  was  ad- 
vised to  annul  these  laws.  The  Board  of  Trade  advised 
the  annulment  of  the  proprietary  charter.  The  laws  were 
annulled,  and  from  this  time  onward  it  became  evident  that 
the  charter  would  be  revoked  and  that  the  province  would 
come  under  direct  royal  control.  The  struggle  to  secure 
this  end  resulted  in  a  triumph  of  the  people  over  the  lords 
proprietors  and  their  representatives  as  early  as  1720, 
though  the  change  was  not  completed  until  1729.  Thus 
was  brought  to  an  end  the  feudalism  under  which  the 
colony  had  long  groaned;  and  while  under  the  new  char- 
ter the  Church  of  England  was  the  established  church  and 
was  supported  at  the  public  expense,  the  toleration  of 
evangelical  forms  of  Christianity  was  complete.  It  is  es- 
timated that  at  least  two  thirds  of  the  population  at  that 


C  H  AP.  V 1 1 1 .  ]  SCRE I  'EN '  S  LA  S  T  DA  YS.  2  2 'J 

date  were  dissenters.  In  1707  the  province  was  divided 
into  ecclesiastical  parishes,  and  provision  was  made  for  the 
erection  of  a  church  and  for  the  support  of  a  minister  in 
each. 

Aged,  infirm,  and  possessed  of  a  competency,  Screven 
laid  down  the  duties  of  the  pastorate  in  i  706  and  retired 
to  his  farm,  where  Georgetown  now  stands.  He  left  with 
the  church  as  a  memento  and  guide  "  An  Ornament  for 
Church  Members,"  which  was  printed  after  his  death.  In 
conclusion  he  urged  the  church  to  secure  with  as  little  de- 
lay as  possible  "  an  able  and  faithful  minister.  Be  sure 
you  take  care  that  the  person  be  orthodox  in  the  faith, 
and  of  blameless  life,  and  does  own  the  Confession  of 
Faith  put  forth  by  our  brethren  in  London,  in  1689."  But- 
his  evangelical  zeal  was  too  great  to  allow  him  to  be  idle. 
We  soon  find  him  laboring  earnestly  in  the  regions  round 
about  his  home.  The  church  secured  the  services  of  Mr. 
White,  an  English  Baptist  minister,  who  died  after  a 
brief  term  of  service.  Screven  was  just  considering  an 
invitation  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Boston  church,  but 
was  constrained  to  resume  his  work  in  Charleston.  He 
died  at  his  Georgetown  home,  October  10,  1713,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty-four.  He  left  the  church  a  strong 
body,  with  a  membership  of  nearly  a  hundred.  A  large 
number  of  preaching- stations  had  been  estabhshed,  and 
the  negro  population,  already  becoming  relatively  large, 
had  doubtless  already  been  brought  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent under  the  influence  of  the  gospel. 

The  population  of  the  province  had  increased  to  about 
fifteen  thousand,  of  whom  rather  more  than  half  were 
slaves.  The  fresh  and  fertile  soil  was  yielding  rich  returns 
to  the  application  of  slave  labor,  lumber  was  abundant 
and  marketable,  the  sea  abounded  in  valuable  fish,  and 
commercial  prosperity  gladdened  the  hearts  of  the  colo- 


228  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Tkr.  i. 

nists.      Culture  and   refinement  went  hand  in  hand  with 
abundance  and    leisure,   and  the  foundations  were  being 
laid  for  the   brilliant  political  and   religious  history  of  the 
succeeding  time,  and  also,  alas!   for  more  recent  disasters. 
Little  beyond  his  name  is  known  of  Sanford,  Screven's 
successor.       Dying  about  1718  he  was  succeeded  by  Wil- 
liam Peartt.      During  his  ten  years'  pastorate  the  work  of 
church    extension   was    carried   forward   with    vigor,    and 
meeting-houses  were  built  on   Edisto  Island,  on  the  Ash- 
ley River  above  Charleston,  and  on   Stono,  sixteen  miles 
from  the  city  (Manly,  "  Two  Centuries,"  p.  94)-     He  mar- 
ried the  widow  of    Paul    Grimball,   a  noted   Baptist  who 
had  been  secretary  to  the  prince,  and  a  member  of  Gov- 
ernor Archdale's  council.      This  lady  was  married  a  third 
time  and  (as  Mrs.   Smith)  left  a  legacy  of  ^^1540  to  the 
Philadelphia  Baptist  church.      Thomas  Simmons,  an  Eng- 
lishman who  had  been  ordained  in  Pennsylvania,  was  the 
next  pastor.      Under  him   troubles  began,  and  what  had 
been  a  united  and  prosperous  church  was  so  rent  asunder 
by  factions  that   by    1746   Morgan    Edwards  found   only 
three,    "  one    man    and    two    women,"    "  that    might    be 
called  a  church."      In    1733   a  schism  occurred    resulting 
in  the  organization  of  a  General   Baptist  church.       They 
secured  as  pastor  a  Mr.  Ingram  from  England,  and  wor- 
shiped at  Stono,  where  a  meeting-house  had  been  erected 
some  time  before.      In   the  same  year  Isaac  Chanler,  an 
p:nglish  Baptist  minister,   began    laboring   in   the  Ashley 
River  community,  and  in  1736  the  work  had  reached  such 
dimensions  that  it  was  thought  wise  to  organize  a  church 
there.      This    also    drew   heavily    on    the    mother-church. 
The  work  on  Edisto  was  carried  on  at  this  time  with  con- 
siderable success  by  Mr.  Tilly,  but  no  organization  seems 
to  have  been  effected. 

One  other  church,  which  was  likewise  to  become  the 


Chap,  viii.]  VIRGINIA    EXCLUDES  DISSENT.  229 

mother  of  churches,  was  constituted  in  South  Carolina 
before  the  close  of  this  period.  In  1737  a  company  of 
Baptists  from  the  Welsh  Tract,  Pa.  (now  Delaware),  under 
the  leadership  of  James  James,  settled  on  the  Peedee 
River,  where  in  1738  they  organized  themselves  into  a 
church,  afterward  known  as  the  Welsh  Neck  church. 
Philip  James,  a  son  of  the  leader,  was  ordained  pastor  of 
the  church  in  1743,  Isaac  Chanler  and  Thomas  Simmons 
assisting  in  the  ceremony.  The  church  was  organized  so 
near  the  close  of  the  period  that  nothing  further  need  be 
here  recorded. 

The  history  of  Virginia  Baptists  had  barely  a  beginning 
in  the  present  period.  Virginia  was  settled  by  thorough- 
going churchmen.  The  Church  of  England  was  estab- 
lished, the  support  of  its  ministers  amply  provided  for  at  the 
public  expense ;  the  people  were  compelled  under  severe 
penalties  to  participate  regularly  in  the  church  services 
and  to  subject  themselves  to  catechetical  instruction;  dis- 
senting services  of  any  kind  were  rigorously  prohibited ; 
heavy  fines  were  imposed  on  ship-owners  for  bringing  in 
dissenters,  and  the  people  were  prohibited  under  heavy 
penalties  from  harboring  or  in  any  way  favoring  them. 
In  1642  three  Congregational  ministers  from  New  Eng- 
land attempted  to  introduce  their  principles  among  the 
people,  but  were  soon  obliged  to  relinquish  their  plans 
and  to  leave  the  colony.  About  1648  there  were  found 
to  be  about  one  hundred  and  eighteen  dissenters  in  the 
colony,  mostly  Congregationalists.  These  were  severely 
dealt  with.  The  Quakers  pressed  in  with  considerable 
vigor  from  1656  onward.  The  following  act  of  the  as- 
sembly (1661—62)  applied  equally  to  Baptists  and  Quak- 
ers, though  no  Baptist  is  known  to  have  been  in  Virginia 
up  to  this  date:  "Whereas,  Many  schismatical  persons, 
out  of  their  aversion  to  the  orthodox  established  religion, 


230  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  i. 

or  out  of  the  newfangled  conceits  of  their  own  heretical 
inventions,  refuse  to  ha\e  their  children  baptized ;  Be  it 
therefore  enacted  .  .  .  that  all  persons  that,  in  contempt 
of  the  divine  sacrament  of  baptism,  shall  refuse  when  they 
may  carry  their  child  to  a  lawful  minister  in  that  county,  to 
have  them  baptized,  shall  be  amerced  two  thousand  pounds 
of  tobacco;  half  to  the  informer,  half  to  the  public." 

The  provisions  of  the  English  Act  of  Toleration  of  i68g 
were  to  a  great  extent  inoperative  in  Virginia  for  the  next 
twenty  years.  From  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  there  were  a  number  of  scattered  Baptists  in  Vir- 
ginia, especially  in  Isle  of  Wight  County.  Some  of  these 
sent  an  earnest  petition  to  the  General  Baptists  of  London 
for  ministerial  help.  In  response  two  ministers,  Robert 
Nordin  and  Thomas  White,  were  sent  out  in  1714.  The 
latter  died  before  reaching  Virginia ;  the  former  organized 
a  church  at  Burleigh.  It  is  possible  that  this  and  other 
General  Baptist  churches  had  already  been  gathered  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  Nordin.  Before  1 729  there  was  also 
a  church  in  Surrey  County,  in  close  affiliation,  it  would 
seem,  with  that  at  Burleigh.  Nordin  died  in  1735.  Two 
years  later  two  more  English  Baptist  ministers,  Casper 
Mintz  and  Richard  Jones,  came  out  to  carry  forward  the 
work.  The  church  at  Burleigh  was  in  a  distracted  and 
unsettled  state  in  1756  and  appealed  to  the  Philadelphia 
Association  for  a  visit  of  brethren  to  set  things  in  order. 

If  Baptists  appeared  in  Virginia  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  Morgan  Edwards  supposed, 
they  were  probably  driven  by  the  severe  measures  referred 
to  across  the  North  Carolina  border.  W^e  have  no  record 
of  the  formation  of  a  church  in  North  Carolina  until  1727, 
when  an  organization  was  effected  under  the  leadership  of 
Paul  Palmer,  who  had  been  a  member  of  tlie  Welsh  Tract 
church,  and  who  was  a  correspondent  of  John   Comer,  of 


Chap,  vni.]     EARLY  BAPTISTS   OF  CONNECTICUT.  23 1 

Newport.  From  a  letter  written  by  this  church  to  Comer 
in  1729,  we  learn  that  it  was  organized  in  1727  and  con- 
sisted of  thirty-two  members.  It  was  located  in  Chowan 
County,  at  a  place  called  Perquimans.  This  was  the  only 
church  organized  during  the  present  period. 

Four  churches  were  organized  in  Connecticut  during 
this  period,  under  the  influence  of  the  Rhode  Island  Gen- 
eral (Six  Principle)  Baptists — the  first,  at  Groton  in  1705, 
through  the  efforts  of  Valentine  Wightman,  of  North  Kings- 
ton, R.  I.,  who  became  its  pastor  ;  the  second,  at  New  Lon- 
don in  1726,  in  connection  with  the  labors  of  Stephen 
Gorton  ;  the  third,  in  1735,  at  Wallingford,  of  persons  who 
had  been  members  of  the  New  London  church  ;  the  fourth 
church  to  be  constituted,  and  the  last  during  this  period, 
was  the  Farmington  (now  Southington)  church.  Small 
bands  of  Baptists  of  the  same  type  appeared  in  a  number 
of  other  places. 

There  were  Mennonites  in  the  New  Netherlands  (after- 
ward New  York)  as  early  as  1644.  The  Dutch  colonists 
were  of  the  Reformed  religion  and  tolerated  sparingly 
other  forms  of  worship.  The  free  exercise  of  religion  was 
given  to  the  Church  of  England  in  1641,  and  rehgious 
freedom  was  granted  by  charter  to  the  town  of  Flushing 
in  1645  ;  but  unacceptable  forms  of  rehgion  intruded  them- 
selves to  such  an  extent  as  to  cause  alarm,  and  in  1656 
conventicles  and  meetings,  public  and  private,  were  "  ab- 
solutely and  expressly  forbidden."  The  penalty  of  preach- 
ing, reading,  or  singing  in  any  "  meetings  differing  from 
the  customary  and  legal  assemblies  "  was  fixed  at  one  hun- 
dred pounds  Flemish,  and  the  penalty  of  being  "  found  in 
such  meetings"  at  twenty-five  pounds.  Lutherans  were 
numerous  and  by  vigorously  protesting  were  able  to  se- 
cure the  right  to  worship  in  their  own  houses.  The  town 
of  Flushing  insisted  on  enjoying  the  provisions  of  its  char- 


232 


THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  i. 


ter,  even  to  the  extent  of  tolerating  Quakers.  These  spe- 
cial privileges  were  withdrawn  from  the  town  by  special 
ordinance  in  1658. 

In   1643  Lady  Moody,  who  had  adopted  antipedobap- 
tist  views,  left  Massachusetts,  with  a  number  of  her  friends 
and  dependents,  for  Long  Island.      On  her  way  she  spent 
some  time  in  New  Haven,  where  she  is  said  to  have  made 
several  converts  to  her  views,  among  them   Mrs.  Eaton, 
the  wife  of  the  first  governor  of  the  New  Haven  colony, 
and  the  daughter  of  an  English  bishop.      Mrs.  Eaton  gave 
much  trouble  to  Pastor  John  Davenport,  who  labored  ear- 
nestly to  convince  her  that  "  baptism  has  come  in  the  place 
of  circumcision,  and  is  to  be  administered  unto  infants." 
Lady  Moody  took  a  patent  of  land  from  Governor  Kieft 
at  Gravesend,  with  the  guaranty  of  "the   free  liberty  of 
conscience  according  to  the  custom   of  Holland,  without 
molestation  or  disturbance  from  any  magistrate  or  magis- 
trates, or  any  other  ecclesiastical  minister  that  may  pretend 
jurisdiction  over  them."      A  number  of  other  antipedobap- 
tists  from  New  England  and  elsewhere  gathered  themselves 
around  Lady  Moody,  but  they  do  not  seem  at  this  time  to 
have  formed  themselves  into  a  church.      Francis  Doughty, 
an  English  antipedobaptist,  having  incurred  persecution  at 
Lynn  and  Taunton,  Mass.,  for  denying  infant  baptism,  was 
the  first  religious  teacher  in  Flushing.      After  laboring  for 
a  short  period  he  left  for  Virginia  in   1656.      A  paper  on 
"  The  State  of  Religion  "  in  the  New  Netherlands,  drawn  up 
by  two  Reformed  clergymen  (Megapolensis  and  Drissius) 
in  August,  1657,  and  addressed  to  the  classis  of  Amster- 
dam, gives  a  number  of  interesting  facts  with  reference  to 
Long  Island  at  this  time,  which  partly  confirm  and  partly 
contradict  some  of  the  data  derived  from  other  sources. 
Mennonites  are  mentioned   as   being  at   Gravesend,  who 
"  reject  infant  baptism,  the  Sabbath,  the  office  of  preacher, 


Chap,  viii.]  WICKEXDEX  AT  ELUSIUXG.  233 

and  the  teachers  of  God's  word,  saying  that  through  these 
have  come  all  sorts  of  contention  into  the  world.      When- 
ever they  come  together  the  one  or  the  other  reads  some- 
thing for  them."      These  so-called  Mennonites  were  prob- 
ably identical  with   Lady  Moody  and   her  followers,  and 
these  peculiarities  may   account  for   the  failure  of   these 
antipedobaptists    to    organize   a    regular    Baptist    church. 
The    notice    about    Flushing    is    highly    interesting:    "At 
Flushing   they    have    had   a    Presbyterian    preacher   who 
conformed  to  our  Church,  but  many  of  them  became  en- 
dowed  with  divers  opinions.   .   .    .   They  absented   them- 
selves from   preaching,  nor  would  they  pay  the  preacher 
his  promised  stipend.      The  said  preacher  was  obliged  to 
leave  and  repair  to  the  English  Virginias."     This  preacher 
can  scarcely  be  other  than  Francis  Doughty,  whose  anti- 
pedobaptist  views  seem  abundantly  attested.      The  docu- 
ment  continues:    "Last  year   [1656]   a  fomenter  of   evil 
came  there.      He  was  a  cobbler  from   Rhode   Island  .   .   . 
and  stated  that  he  was  commissioned  by  Christ.     He  began 
to  preach   at   Flushing,   and    then  went  with   the    people 
into  the  river  and  dipped   them.      This  becoming  known 
here,  the  constable  proceeded  thither  and  brought  him  along. 
He  was  banished  the  province."      According  to  the  con- 
temporary public  records  this  "cobbler"  was  none  other 
than  the  distinguished  William  Wickenden,  pastor  of  the 
Providence  church.      Li  November,  1656,  William  Hallett, 
sheriff  of  Flushing,  was  arraigned  before  the  authorities  for 
having  "  dared   to   collect  conventicles  in  his  house,   and 
to  permit  one  William  Wickendam    [Wickenden]    to  ex- 
plain and  comment  on  God's  Holy  Word,  and  to  adminis- 
ter sacraments,  though  not  called  thereto  by  any  civil  or 
clerical  authority  "  ;  also  for  having  assisted  at  such  meet- 
ings, and   "  accepted   from  the  said  Wickendam's  hands 
the  bread  in  the  form  and  manner  the  Lord's  Supper  is 


2  34  THE  BAPTISTS.  [I'kk.  i. 

usually  celebrated."  Hallett  was  deprived  of  his  office 
and  fined  fifty  pounds.  Wickenden  was  fined  one  hun- 
dred pounds  and  banished.  He  was  sentenced  to  "  re- 
main a  prisoner  till  the  fine  and  cost  of  the  process  shall 
be  paid."  When  it  was  ascertained  that  he  was  too  poor 
to  pay  the  fine  he  was  allowed  to  depart,  with  the  threat 
of  imprisonment  till  fine  and  costs  should  be  paid  in  case 
he  should  return. 

A  still  more  stringent  ordinance  was  enacted  in  1662, 
providing  for  a  fine  of  fifty  guldens  for  being  present  at 
an  unauthorized  religious  meeting,  with  a  doubling  of  the 
fine  for  the  second  ofifense,  a  quadrupling  for  the  third, 
"and  arbitrary  punishment  besides."  The  stringency  of 
the  law  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  evils  forefended 
were  becoming  alarming. 

About  17 1 1  Nicholas  Eyres,  a  well-educated  brewer  of 
New  York,  invited  Valentine  Wightman,  of  Groton,  Conn., 
one  of  the  most  noted  General  Baptist  ministers  of  the 
time,  to  New  York,  and  opened  his  house  on  Broad  Street 
for  religious  services.  Wightman  seems  for  years  to  have 
visited  the  city  from  time  to  time.  In  17 14  Eyres  and  a 
number  of  others  were  baptized  by  Wightman.  It  was 
the  advice  of  some  that  the  baptismal  service  should  be 
private  for  fear  of  the  mob ;  but  Eyres  insisted  that  it 
should  be  public,  referring  to  the  New  Testament  words : 
"  No  man  doeth  anything  in  secret,  and  he  himself  seek- 
eth  to  be  known  openly."  He  waited  on  Governor  Bur- 
net (son  of  the  famous  bishop)  and  asked  for  police  pro- 
tection. This  was  cheerfully  granted.  The  governor 
graced  the  occasion  with  his  presence  and  is  said  to 
have  remarked  after  the  baptismal  service  was  over : 
"  This  was  the  ancient  manner  of  baptizing,  and  is,  in 
my  opinion,  much  preferable  to  the  practice  of  modern 
times."      In  1715  Eyres's  house  was  licensed  as  a  Baptist 


Chap,  viii.]      FIRST  CIIUKCil-ES   OF  NEW   YORK.  235 

meeting-house.  In  1720  he  hired  a  separate  meeting- 
house and  in  1721  received  a  permit  to  preach,  under  the 
Toleration  Act,  from  Governor  Burnet,  which  begins: 
"  Whereas,  Mr.  Nich.  Eyres,  brewer,  a  freeman,  and  inhab- 
itant of  the  City  of  New  York,  pretending  to  be  at  present 
a  teacher  or  preacher  of  a  congregation  of  Anabaptists, 
which  has  had  its  beginning  about  five  years  ago  within 
this  city  and  has  so  continued  hitherto."  The  recognition 
of  the  church  and  the  ordination  of  the  pastor  seem  not 
to  have  taken  place  till  1724,  when  Valentine  Wightman, 
of  Groton,  and  Daniel  Wightman,  of  Newport,  visited  New 
York  for  these  purposes.  In  1728  a  lot  was  purchased 
and  a  meeting-house  erected.  Considerable  aid  was  re- 
ceived from  the  Rhode  Island  Baptists,  but  a  cru.shing 
debt  was  incurred.  This,  combined  with  doctrinal  dishar- 
mony, almost  wrecked  the  church  in  1730.  According  to 
Eyres,  who  left  New  York  in  1731  to  become  joint  pastor 
with  Wightman  of  the  Six  Principle  church  of  Newport, 
"  some  of  them  deserted  under  a  pretense  of  love  to  the 
principles  of  absolute  election  and  predestination."  The 
church  languished  and  became  extinct  before  the  close  of 
the  period. 

About  sixteen  Baptist  families  settled  on  Block  Island  in 
1663  and  without  formal  organization  maintained  reHgious 
services  until  1772,  when  a  Baptist  church  was  organized, 
the  only  church  that  has  ever  existed  on  the  island. 

About  1700  William  Rhodes,  a  Baptist  minister,  ap- 
peared at  Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island,  and  a  number  were 
converted  through  his  ministry  and  probably  baptized  by 
him.  Some  time  afterward  (the  date  does  not  appear  to 
be  ascertainable)  a  church  was  organized  with  the  aid  of 
elders  from  Rhode  Island  (probably  General  Baptists),  and 
in  1724  Robert  Peeks,  a  member  of  the  church,  was  or- 
dained as  its  pastor. 


PERIOD  II. 

FROM   THE  GREAT    AV/AKENING    TO  THE 
ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  TRIENNIAL 

CONVENTION  (1740-1814). 


237 


CHAPTER    I. 

NEW     ENGLAND.! 

The  preceding  period  closed  with  Baptist  churches 
somewliat  firmly  rooted  in  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  South  Caro- 
lina, and  with  feeble  churches  in  Connecticut,  New  York, 
Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  While  the  first  Baptist 
churches  of  America  were  strongly  Calvinistic,  Arminian- 
ism  had  proved  far  more  popular.  The  First  Church  of 
Providence  soon  became  Arminian,  and  Arminian  Baptist 
churches  multiplied  in  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  and 
Connecticut.  The  first  Baptist  church  of  South  Carolina 
had  been  almost  wrecked  by  Arminianism.  In  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  and  New  York  the  Arminian  type  of 
teaching  prevailed.  The  First  Church  of  Boston  was  con- 
siderably shaken  by  Arminianism  about  i  740.  Calvinism 
had  secured  almost  undisputed  control  in  the  churches 
of  the  Philadelphia  Association,  and  the  vigor  of  religious 
and  denominational  life  in  these  churches  augured  well  for 
the  future  predominance  of  this  type  of  Baptist  teaching. 

The  rapid  spread  of  a  Socinianized  Arminianism  was  by 
no  means  confined  to  the  Baptists  nor  to  America.  In 
England  a  cold  intellectualism  was  becoming  widely  prev- 

1  See  Backus,  "  Hist."  and  "  Tracts  "' ;  Hovey  ;  Guild,  "  Chaplain  Smith  " 
and  "James  Manning";  Callender ;  Comer;  Jonathan  Edwards;  Tracy; 
Trumbull;  Denison  ;  Chauncy  ;  Whitcfield,  "  Journals  "  ;  Stewart,  "Free- 
Will  Baptists,"  vol.  i.  ;  "Cent.  Rec.  Fr.-W.  Baptists";  A.splund;  Bene- 
dict; True;  and  Barrows. 

239 


240  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  n. 

alent  alike  in  the  established  church  and  in  the  dissenting 
denominations.  The  Presbyterians  of  England  were  pre- 
paring to  transfer  their  membership,  buildings,  and  endow- 
ments to  Unitarianism.  The  General  Baptist  churches 
had  dwindled  under  the  blighting  influence  of  Socinianism 
till  those  who  could  by  any  stretch  of  charity  be  regarded 
as  confessing  the  deity  of  Christ  numbered  only  a  few 
hundreds;  while  the  evangelistic  zeal  of  the  English  Par- 
ticular Baptists  had  given  place  to  a  type  of  hyper- Calvin- 
ism that  looked  upon  evangelistic  effort  as  an  impertinence. 
In  New  England  the  decline  in  religious  zeal  and  in  the 
average  purity  of  religious  life  had  from  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  been  rapid  and  general.  The  Half- 
way Covenant  of  1662,  which  relaxed  the  rigorous  restric- 
tion of  church  and  ci\il  privileges  to  the  regenerate  by 
admitting  to  baptism  the  children  of  moral  and  orthodox 
persons  who  laid  no  claim  to  personal  regeneration,  was 
symptomatic  of  the  decline  of  religious  zeal  and  fervor, 
and  promoted  still  fiu'ther  decline.  In  a  great  majority 
of  the  churches  of  the  standing  order  the  owning  of  the 
covenant  became  a  mere  formality,  and  all  the  privileges 
of  church-membership  were  thrown  open  to  those  who 
made  no  profession  of  conversion.  Under  such  circum- 
stances it  was  natural  that  experimental  religion  should  be 
greatly  neglected.  The  lowering  of  the  standard  of  full 
church-membership  inevitably  resulted  in  the  lowering  of 
the  standard  of  admission  to  the  ministr}'.  Far  greater 
stress  came  to  be  laid  upon  intellectual  training  than  upon 
a  personal  experience  of  divine  grace,  and  if  to  suitable 
education  doctrinal  soundness  and  a  life  free  from  scandal 
were  added,  no  question  was  likely  to  be  raised  as  to  the 
fitness  of  the  candidate  for  ordination.  Many  good  men 
of  the  standing  order  bewailed  the  secularization  of  the 
churches  and  sought  in  vain  for  remedies.      Among  other 


CiiA?.  I.]  THE    GREAT  AWAKEXING.  24I 

devices  was  the  attempt  to  introduce  a  Presbyterian  dis- 
cipline. Increase  Mather  declared  (about  1705)  that 
"  the  Congregational  church  discipline  is  not  suited  for 
a  worldly  interest,  or  for  a  formal  generation  of  professors. 
It  will  stand  or  fall  as  godliness  in  the  power  of  it  does 
prevail  or  otherwise."  With  almost  prophetic  insight  he 
added  :  "  If  the  begun  apostasy  should  proceed  as  fast  the 
next  thirty  years  as  it  has  done  these  last,  surely  it  will 
come  to  pass  in  New  England  (except  the  Gospel  itself 
depart  with  the  order  of  it)  that  the  most  conscientious 
people  therein  will  think  themselves  concerned  to  gather 
churches  out  of  churches."  The  begun  apostasy  con- 
tinued, and  in  something  less  tlian  fifty  years  the  process 
of  gathering  churches  out  of  churches  was  going  rapidly 
forward. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  the  present  work  to 
give  a  full  account  of  the  Great  Awakening  in  New  Eng- 
land and  the  similar  movement  in  England,  commonly 
designated  the  Evangelical  Revival,  led  in  America  by 
Whitefield,  Edwards,  the  Tennents,  and  others,  and  in 
England  by  the  Wesleys,  Whitefield,  and  others.  The 
revival  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  America  in  con- 
nection with  Jonathan  Edwards's  labors  as  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  in  1734.  For  years  this 
community  was  in  such  a  state  of  religious  fervor  and  ac- 
tivity that  scarcely  an  indixidual  escaped  the  influence  of 
Christian  teaching  and  large  numbers  experienced  inner 
renewing.  From  Northampton  the  movement  spread 
rapidly  throughout  New  England.  At  about  the  same 
time  Gilbert  Tennent  began  to  agitate  in  the  Presbyterian 
Synod  of  Philadelphia  for  the  requirement  of  evidences  of 
experimental  religion  in  candidates  for  the  ministry.  In 
1727,  William  Tennent,  his  father,  had  founded  the  "  Log 
College"  for  the  education  of  ministers,  and  had  by  this 


242  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

time  impressed  with  evangelistic  zeal  a  large  body  of 
young  men.  The  controversy  as  to  the  relative  stress 
that  should  be  laid  on  vital  godliness  and  on  education 
in  candidates  for  the  ministry  cannot  here  be  followed  up. 
But  those  who  gathered  themselves  around  the  Tennents, 
and  who  laid  chief  stress  on  vital  godliness,  were  able,  not- 
withstanding much  bitter  opposition,  to  stir  the  religious 
life  of  the  middle  colonies  to  its  depths. 

Whitefield  began  his  American  evangelistic  labors  in  the 
South  (1637),  and  extended  them  to  the  middle  and  New 
England  colonies  (1740-41,  etc.),  preaching  with  marvel- 
ous frequency  ^  and  with  irresistible  power  to  immense 
audiences.  Whitefield's  New  England  tour  was  followed 
by  a  like  visit  from  Gilbert  Tennent  in  1741.  Side  by 
side  with  these  great  evangelists  a  large  number  of  highly 
gifted  and  enthusiastic  men  were  soon  engaged  in  bringing 
the  gospel  message  to  bear  upon  the  masses  of  the  people 
throughout  the  colonies.  Scarcely  a  community  wholly 
escaped  the  influence  of  the  revival.  There  are  few  in- 
stances in  history  of  transformations  of  religious  life  so 
profound  and  so  widespread  during  so  short  a  period. 
The  revival  probably  reached  its  climax  about  1741,  but 
for  many  years  afterward  the  work  was  carried  forward 
with  zeal  and  success.  The  prevailing  type  of  preaching 
that  underlay  the  revival  was  Calvinistic.  No  point  in  the 
Christian  system  was  more  dwelt  upon  than  the  necessity 
of  regeneration  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Arminianism  in  insidious  forms  had  so  increased  by  the 
beginning  of  the  revival  as  to  cause  alarm  to  the  main- 
tainers  of  the  old  orthodoxy.  Edwards  relates  th.at  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  revival  at  Northampton  this  was  one  of 
the  influences  that  led  men  to  seek  salvation.      It  was  feared 

1  He  preached  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  times  in  seventy-five  days 
in  1740. 


CiiAP.  I.]  THE  XEIV  LIGHTS.  243 

that  with  the  spread  of  Arminianism  the  Spirit  of  God  would 
be  withdrawn  from  the  land,  and  that  the  opportunity  for 
securing  salvation  would  be  past.  No  doubt  Edwards 
himself  encouraged  this  view.  It  may  be  readily  con- 
ceived that  this  extraordinary  awakening  was  not  accom- 
plished without  arousing  the  sharpest  antagonism  on  the 
part  of  ministers  and  others  who  had  become  imbued  with 
Socinian  ideas,  and  who  regarded  any  manifestation  of 
enthusiasm  in  connection  with  religion  as  savoring  of 
fanaticism. 

The  New  England  Baptists,  as  a  rule,  held  aloof  from 
the  revival  movement  during  its  early  stages.  This  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  their  churches 
were  Arminian  and  could  not  sympathize  with  the  Cal- 
vinistic  character  of  the  movement ;  and  partly  to  the  fact 
that  having  been  so  unkindly  treated  by  the  standing  order 
they  felt  a  natural  antipathy  to  entering  into  intimate  rela- 
tions with  its  members  and  ministers. 

The  controversies  between  the  New  Lights,  as  the  re- 
vival party  came  to  be  called,  and  the  opponents  of  the 
revival  were  prolonged  and  bitter.  It  will  not  be  practi- 
cable to  enter  into  the  details  of  the  controversies  and  of 
the  legal  enactments  against  the  New  Lights.  In  many 
of  the  churches  the  pastor  and  a  majority  of  the  mem- 
bers opposed  the  revival  and  refused  to  admit  the  revival 
preachers,  while  a  minority  were  enthusiastic  New  Lights 
and  regarded  this  opposition  as  a  fighting  against  God. 
Denunciatory  language  on  both  sides  generally  resulted 
in  the  withdrawal  of  the  New  Lights  and  the  organization 
of  churches  of  the  regenerate. 

The  opponents  of  the  revival  objected  strongly  to  lay 
evangelization,  which  became  a  prominent  feature  of  the 
New  Light  movement,  and  to  the  unauthorized  invasion 
of  parishes  by  itinerant  preachers.     The  New  Lights,  it 


244  ^^^^  BArrjsrs.  [Pkr.  n. 

need  scarcely  be  said,  were  not  always  blameless  in  their 
treatment  of  the  opposing  party.  They  sometimes  under- 
took, in  an  uncharitable  spirit,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  those 
who  refused  to  fall  into  line  with  their  work.  They  had 
a  definite  idea  of  the  kind  of  religious  experience  that 
each  individual  should  have,  and  they  were  loath  to  recog- 
nize any  one  as  truly  con\erted  who  had  not  experienced 
a  larije  measure  of  emotional  excitement.  Yet  with  all 
their  extravagances  the  New  Lights  unquestionably  stood 
for  vital  godliness  and  aggressive  Christianity,  while  those 
who  opposed  them  put  themselves  in  the  path  of  a  great 
work  of  reformation  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  Unita- 
rian defection  of  the  later  time. 

Strenuous  laws  were  enacted  in  Connecticut  against  the 
formation  of  churches  without  the  permission  of  the  au- 
thorities and  against  unauthorized  preaching.  A  number 
of  godly  ministers  were  imprisoned,  fined,  and  expelled 
from  the  country  ;  and  members  of  New  Light  churches 
were  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  standing  churches  and 
imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay.  Unauthorized  schools 
and  colleges  were  prohibited,  and  only  university  gradu- 
ates were  allowed  to  receive  support  under  the  laws.  A 
number  of  students  were  expelled  from  Yale  College  in 
1 744  for  favoring  the  New  Light  party.  The  president 
of  Harvard  College,  who  in  1741  had  commended  White- 
field  and  Tennent  as  "pious  and  valuable  men  of  God," 
"greatly  instrumental  in  the  hand  of  God  to  revive  this 
blessed  work,"  joined  with  his  colleagues  in  1745,  on  the 
occasion  of  Whitefield's  second  tour  in  New  England,  in 
publishing  a  declaration  against  him.  Whitefield  had  set 
the  example  of  denouncing  the  unconverted  ministers  who 
opposed  the  revival,  and  was  held  responsible  for  the  strife 
and  schism  that  had  by  this  time  become  alarming. 

As  these  Separate  churches  made  unregenerate  church- 


Chap,  i.]  SEPARATES  BECOME  BAPTISTS.  245 

membership  one  of  the  chief  points  of  their  protest,  it 
might  have  been  expected  that  the  incompatibihty  of  this 
position  with  the  retention  of  infant  baptism  would  soon 
become  evident.  Of  the  thirty-one  ministers  who  were 
ordained  as  pastors  of  Separate  churches  from  1 646  to  1 65  i , 
five  were  Baptists  before  they  were  ordained  and  eight 
became  Baptists  soon  afterward.  Among  the  latter  was 
Isaac  Backus,  who  was  to  become  the  most  important 
Baptist  leader  and  polemicist  of  the  period. 

In  1 745  a  Separate  church  was  formed  at  Mansfield, 
Conn.,  amid  much  persecution.  A  number  of  antipedo- 
baptists  were  among  the  constituent  members.  In  their 
covenant  it  is  stated  :  "  Though  most  of  us  agree  in  the 
article  of  infant  baptism,  yet  a  difTerence  in  that  particular 
doth  not  break  the  spiritual  communion  of  saints ;  there- 
fore it  is  no  just  bar  to  our  covenanting  and  partaking  of 
the  ordinances  together,  wherein  we  are  agreed."  It  is 
probable  that  Baptists  soon  appeared  in  all  or  nearly  all 
of  the  Separate  societies,  and  it  was  fondly  hoped  that  the 
New  Light  bond  would  suffice  to  hold  pedobaptists  and 
antipedobaptists  together  in  fellowship  and  peace;  but 
it  is  in  the  nature  of  antipedobaptist  convictions  to  grow 
stronger  and  stronger  with  time  and  reflection,  and  those 
who  became  convinced  that  infant  baptism  was  not  only 
non-Scriptural,  but  a  lamentable  perversion  of  Scripture 
teaching,  soon  came  to  feel  that  a  serious  compromise  of 
principle  was  involved  in  their  continuance  in  fellowship 
w^ith  those  who  were  involved  in  this  error.  The  first 
large  accession  to  the  Baptist  ranks  from  this  source  oc- 
curred at  Sturbridge,  Mass.  (June,  1749).  when  Elder 
Moulton  baptized  thirteen  members  of  the  Separate  church, 
including  a  deacon.  The  pastor,  John  Blunt,  all  the  re- 
maining officers,  and  most  of  the  members,  amounting  to 
over  sixty,  soon  followed.      In  the  words  of  one  who  par- 


246  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

ticipated  in  this  movement,  "  Infant  sprinkling,  which  we 
called  baptism,  went  aw^ay  like  the  chaff  of  the  summer 
threshing-floor."  Having  baptized  nearly  a  hundred  be- 
lievers. Blunt  had  by  1753  abandoned  his  antipedobaptist 
views  and  was  seeking  to  restore  the  practice  of  infant 
baptism  in  the  church.  The  church  admonished  him  and 
called  a  council  of  Separate  churches,  which  sustained  its 
admonition  and  declared  that  the  pastor  had  broken  cove- 
nant. Although  the  members  of  the  church  made  dili- 
"ent  efforts  to  avail  themselves  of  the  exemption  afforded 
by  the  law  to  Baptist  churches,  they  were  taxed  for  two 
years  to  support  the  standing  order,  and  such  as  refused 
to  pay  had-  their  goods  seized  and  sacrificed  or  were 
thrown  into  prison.  They  finally  appealed  to  the  Supe- 
rior Court,  which  decided  in  their  favor. 

Irritated  by  the  increase  of  the  Baptists  and  their 
firmness  in  maintaining  their  rights,  the  legislature,  in 
1752,  amended  the  exemption  law  so  as  to  make  it  far 
more  burdensome.  It  was  enacted  that  the  certificates  of 
members  should  be  signed  by  the  minister  with  two  prin- 
cipal members  of  the  Baptist  church,  and  that  no  minister 
or  church  should  have  power  to  give  lawful  certificates 
until  they  should  have  secured  "  from  three  other  churches, 
commonly  called  Anabaptist,  a  certificate  from  each  re- 
spectively, that  they  esteem  such  church  to  be  of  their 
denomination,  and  that  they  conscientiously  beheve  them 
to  be  Anabaptists."  As  the  Separate  churches  w^ere  not 
at  first  in  communion  with  the  older  Baptist  churches, 
and  as  Baptist  churches  were  not  numerous,  it  was  by  no 
means  easy  to  secure  such  certificates ;  while  the  require- 
ment that  they  should  have  themselves  certificated  as 
"Anabaptists  "  involved  an  insult  of  the  gravest  character. 
A  woman  named  Esther  White  was  imprisoned  at  Taunton 
from  February,  1752,  till  March,  1753,  for  refusing  to  pay 


Chap,  i.]  ISAAC  BACKUS.  247 

a  clerical  tax  of  eightpence.  She  soon  afterward  became 
a  Baptist.  A  Separate  church  at  Framingham,  organized 
in  1747,  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  Baptist  church,  which, 
however,  was  not  constituted  until  many  years  later. 

At  Norwich,  Conn.,  the  mother  of  Isaac  Backus  and 
several  other  members  of  the  Separate  church  v/ere  im- 
prisoned for  refusal  to  pay  clerical  taxes.  "  But,"  writes 
Backus  himself,  who  was  in  the  midst  of  this  great  con- 
flict, "  the  more  they  oppressed  them  the  more  they  grew." 
The  Separate  congregation  soon  doubled. 

The  case  of  Isaac  Backus  is  one  of  extraordinary  inter- 
est and  must  be  narrated  at  some  length.  It  well  illus- 
trates the  working  out  of  the  principles  involved  in  this 
movement.  Born  in  1724,  of  ancestry  that  represented 
what  was  best  in  the  Congregational  life  of  Connecticut, 
he  was  brought  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  the  truth  in 
connection  with  revival  meetings  held  in  his  native  town 
in  I  74 1.  Owing  to  his  excellent  religious  education  he 
did  not  experience  so  great  a  degree  of  emotional  excite- 
ment as  did  many  of  his  contemporaries.  In  1 742  he 
united  with  the  church  of  his  fathers  and  remained  a 
member  for  two  years.  But  the  decision  of  the  church 
"  to  admit  communicants  by  a  major  vote,  without  giving 
the  church  so  much  as  a  written  relation  of  any  inward 
change  "  ;  the  disposition  of  the  pastor  to  regard  the  Sup- 
per as  a  converting  ordinance,  and  his  "  strong  affection 
for  the  Saybrook  scheme,"  which  embodied  some  of  the 
most  objectionable  features  of  state-church  Prcsbyterian- 
ism  and  which  the  church  had  rejected  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Joseph  Backus,  his  grandfather;  and  the  persecu- 
tion of  New  Lights  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  led 
him,  along  with  twenty- nine  other  male  members  and  a 
large  number  of  females,  to  withdraw  and  form  a  Separate 
church.      Among   the   Separates  were  one  deacon  and  a 


248  THE  BAPTISTS.  [I'kr.  ii. 

number  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential  people  of 
the  town.  They  soon  came  to  outnumber  the  original 
church,  but  by  a  strange  perversion  of  justice  they  were 
taxed  and  distressed  for  the  support  of  its  pastor.  Dur- 
ing a  single  year  as  many  as  forty  persons,  including  a 
number  of  women,  were  imprisoned.  The  main  points  of 
contention  on  the  part  of  the  Separates  were  the  restric- 
tion of  the  Supper  to  the  regenerate,  the  application  of 
church  discipline  so  as  to  secure  churches  of  the  regen- 
erate, and  the  independence  of  the  local  church,  with  the 
right  to  call  and  ordain  its  own  officers. 

As  a  result  of  a  revival  in  Titicut,  near  Middleborough, 
Mass.,  the  New  Lights  had  withdrawn  from  the  established 
church  in  December,  i  747.  Backus,  who  had  shortly  be- 
fore decided  to  give  himself  to  the  gospel  ministry,  hap- 
pened a  few  days  afterward  to  pass  that  way  and  was 
"  prevailed  with  to  tarry  and  preach  among  them."  The 
"precinct  committee"  urged  him  to  take  steps  for  be- 
coming the  legal  pastor  of  the  church,  but  he  had  become 
convinced  of  the  iniquity  of  any  union  of  church  and  state. 
A  revival  resulted  in  about  twenty  conversions.  A  church 
was  formed  in  February  following,  "  which  increased  to 
threescore  in  ten  months."  Backus  and  his  flock  were 
taxed  and  harassed,  but  they  were  resolved,  come  what 
might,  to  adhere  to  their  principles. 

Disputes  about  baptism  were  introduced  into  the  Titicut 
church  in  August,  i  749.  Backus  was  brought  suddenly 
to  feel  "  that  the  Baptist  way  is  certainly  right,  because 
nature  fights  so  against  it.  And  he  was  hurried  on  to 
preach  it  up  the  next  day  ;  which  caused  confusion  among 
the  hearers,  and  returned  with  a  horrible  gloom  over  his 
own  mind  ;  and  he  was  turned  back  to  his  former  practice." 
In  September,  during  his  absence  in  Massachusetts  and 
Rhode  Island,  where  he  seems  to  have  been  seeking  con- 


Chap,  i.]  BACA'i'S  BECOMES  A    BAPTIST.  249 

firmation  in  his  pedobaptist  \-ie\vs,  Elder  Moulton  had 
visited  his  people  "  and  had  plunged  some  of  them  " — 
nine,  as  Backus  elsewhere  mentions.  These  had  been 
offended  by  Backus's  return  to  the  advocacy  of  infant 
baptism,  and  now  withdrew  from  the  church  and  inaug- 
urated a  meeting  of  their  own.  Backus  was  no  doubt 
greatly  annoyed.  He  expressed  his  sorrow  for  preaching 
against  infant  baptism,  and  declared  that  he  was  willing  to 
venture  into  eternity  on  that  practice.  But  anxiety  soon 
returned.  He  was  led  a  few  months  later  to  inquire, 
"  Where  is  it,  and  in  what  relation  to  the  church  do  those 
stand  who  are  baptized  but  not  converted?  "  A  body  of 
fanatical  New  Lights  in  Easton  and  Norton,  Mass.,  had 
just  adopted  belie\'ers'  baptism,  and  had  proceeded  in  an 
unseemly  way  to  baptize  one  another  and  had  otherwise 
acted  in  a  disorderly  manner.  The  natural  tendency  of 
these  facts  would  ha\-e  been  to  deter  Backus  from  reopen- 
ing the  question.  But  he  finally  determined  to  "  lea\'e 
good  men  and  bad  men  out  of  the  question,  and  inquire. 
What  saith  the  Scripture?''  Hereby  a  settlement  was 
granted,  and  he  was  baptized  August  22,  i  75  i, "  along  with 
six  members  "  of  his  church,  by  Elder  Benjamin  Pierce,  of 
Warwick.  This  step  involved  deep  humiliation ;  but  the 
voice  of  conscience  had  become  imperative.  Lamentable 
discord  naturally  attended  these  events.  A  council  of  New 
Light  churches  was  called  (October,  1751).  Sixteen  were 
found,  of  whom  three  were  Baptists,  "  willing  to  renew 
their  covenant  and  go  on  together."  These  were  recog- 
nized as  the  church  and  the  rest  were  censured.  Backus 
was  censured  and  excommunicated,  but  was  restored  to 
fellowship  and  the  pastorate  in  November  following.  Two 
of  the  sixteen  insisted  that  Backus  should  baptize  infants, 
and  on  his  refusal  broke  off  communion  with  the  church. 
They  were  finally  censured  and  excommunicated.      In  the 


250  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  ii. 

meantime  five  Baptists  refused  communion  and  were  cen- 
sured. A  council  was  called  (No\ember,  1752)  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  two  excommunicated  pedobaptists,  consist- 
ing of  three  of  the  churches  of  the  former  council.  The 
two  brethren  were  justified,  and  the  majority,  including- 
the  pastor,  censured.  A  general  meeting  of  New  Light 
churches,  in  which  twenty-seven  congregations  were  rep- 
resented, was  held  at  Exeter  (May,  1753)  to  adjust  the 
difficulties  of  the  Titicut  church  and  to  determine  the  pol- 
icy to  be  pursued  in  like  controversies  already  imminent 
elsewhere.  It  was  "  unanimously  agreed  that  a  turning 
to  or  from  infant  baptism  was  not  a  censurable  evil ;  but 
that  each  should  leave  the  other  with  God,  according  to 
Phil.  iii.  15."  The  meeting  arranged  for  a  council  to  meet 
at  Middleborough  in  July  for  the  harmonizing  of  the  con- 
tending elements  in  the  church.  The  censures  of  the 
pedobaptist  and  the  Baptist  members  were  revoked  and 
the  church  was  again  received  into  fellowship. 

Solomon  Paine,  one  of  the  leading  Separate  ministers, 
had  refused  to  take  part  in  the  Exeter  meeting.  This  was 
regarded  as  a  grievance  by  Stephen  Babcock,  a  leading 
antipedobaptist  Separate  minister,  who,  moreover,  criti- 
cised Paine's  attitude  toward  the  Baptists  in  the  ex-parte 
council  of  November,  1752.  This  irritation  led  to  the 
calling  of  a  meeting  of  representatives  of  all  the  Separate 
churches.  The  meeting  was  held  at  Stonington  in  May, 
1754.  Forty  churches  were  represented.  The  result  was 
even  less  satisfactory  to  the  Baptists,  a  majority  having 
pronounced  in  favor  of  the  decision  of  the  cx-partc  council 
of  November,  1752.  Pedobaptist  leaders  like  Paine  began 
to  express  the  opinion  that  while  those  who  confessed 
themselves  to  be  in  darkness  with  reference  to  infant  bap- 
tism were  to  be  tolerated,  those  who  had  reached  the  con- 
viction that  it  was  wrong  should  be  censured.      It  began 


Chap.  I.]  A    MIXED   CHURCH.  25  I 

to  be  evident  to  Baptists  and  pedobaptists  alike  that  a 
breach  was  inevitable.  So  thorough  was  the  agreement 
of  Baptist  and  pedobaptist  Separates  in  their  views  of 
doctrine  and  life,  and  so  closely  had  they  been  united 
through  their  common  sufferings  on  behalf  of  a  converted 
ministry  and  membership,  that  they  regarded  a  sundering 
of  communion  as  a  calamity.  The  fact  that  it  would 
weaken  the  cause  in  the  face  of  bitter  opposition  was 
manifest  to  all. 

Backus  and  his  church  attempted  to  follow  the  policy 
of  mutual  toleration  of  each  other's  views  for  or  against 
infant  baptism.  "  But  when  some  pious  members  mani- 
fested a  belief  of  duty  to  be  buried  in  baptism,  others  re- 
fused to  go  to  the  water  to  see  it  done,  because,  in  their 
view,  they  were  already  baptized,  and  to  repeat  it  would 
be  taking  the  sacred  name  in  vain.  And  when  an  elder 
came  and  sprinkled  some  infants,  the  Baptists  felt  a  like 
difficulty,  though  thty  did  not  leave  the  meeting  where  it 
was  done.  Being  unwilling  to  part,  attempts  were  made 
to  convince  each  other,  which  led  into  warm  debates.  .  .  . 
Thus  edification,  the  great  end  of  Christian  society,  was 
marred  instead  of  being  promoted,  by  that  which  is  called 
large  communion.  It  was  so  far  from  ansv/ering  to  that 
name,  that,  with  their  utmost  endeavors,  the  author 
[Backus]  and  his  brethren  could  never  arrive  at  com- 
munion in  the  ordinance  of  the  Supper,  from  September, 
1754,  to  the  end  of  1755."  By  the  beginning  of  1756 
Backus  and  a  number  of  his  brethren  became  convinced 
"  that  truth  limits  church  commamion  to  believers,  bap- 
tized upon  a  profession  of  their  own  faith."  On  January 
16,  1756,  with  the  assistance  of  representatives  of  the  Bos- 
ton and  Rehoboth  churches,  a  Baptist  church  was  organized 
at  Middleborough,  of  which  Backus  was  to  remain  pastor 
for  fifty  3'ears. 


252  THE   BAP'J'IS'JS.  [I'kk.  ii. 

Backus  was  abundant  in  labors.  The  doctrines  of  the 
Separates  in  general  and  of  the  Baptists  in  particular  con- 
tinued to  be  bitterly  attacked.  He  was  the  chief  Baptist 
champion  of  these  principles,  and  his  polemical  tracts  con- 
stitute a  noble  body  of  writings.  His  defense  of  the  pe- 
culiar principles  of  the  Baptists  was  as  able  as  any  that  the 
eighteenth  century  afforded.  He  wrote  much  in  behalf  of 
liberty  of  conscience  and  against  the  support  of  the  min- 
istry by  taxation.  He  was  ever  on  the  alert  to  protest 
against  anything  that  savored  of  persecution,  and  no  man 
did  more  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
for  the  promotion  oi  ci\il  and  religious  liberty  in  New 
England.  His  services  in  agitating  for  the  abolition  of  the 
unjust  ecclesiastical  laws  of  Massachusetts  will  be  consid- 
ered in  another  chapter.  He  was  among  the  foremost  of 
the  Baptists  in  seeing  the  need  of  an  educated  ministry, 
and  was  a  warm  friend  oi  Rhode  Island  College. 

A  second  Baptist  church  was  organized  in  Middle- 
borough  in  1758  and  a  third  in  1761,  both  at  a  consider- 
able distance  from  the  first,  and  Baptist  principles  were 
profoundly  impressed  upon  the  community.  During  his 
entire  ministry  Backus  traveled  much  in  the  interest  of  the 
cause  throughout  the  New  England  States,  and  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  denomination  was  due,  in  a  considerable 
measure,  to  his  influence.  He  spent  much  time  during 
his  later  years  in  collecting"  and  arranging  materials  for  a 
history  of  the  Baptists  in  New  England,  and  the  denomi- 
nation is  deeply  indebted  to  him  for  the  in\aluable  serxice 
that  he  rendered  in  this  direction. 

Wise  in  counsel,  fervent  in  evangelistic  zeal,  systematic 
and  industrious  in  his  pastoral  and  in  his  literary  work, 
ever  on  the  alert  to  defend  his  denomination  from  unjust 
attacks,  charitable  toward  his  opponents  and  toward  all, 
he  finished  his  course  with  J03-  in  No\ember,  iSC^,  ha\ing 


CiiAi'.  I.]  FIRST   CIIi'RCn,    FROVIDE.XCE.  253 

lived  eight3/-t\vo  years  and  ten  months,  and  having  served 
in  the  gospel  ministry  over  sixty  years. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  glance  at  the  history  of  the  older 
New  England  churches  during  this  period.  The  First 
Church  in  Providence  had  become  Arminian,  an.d  had,  in 
1652,  made  the  laying  on  of  hands  a  condition  of  commun- 
ion. Controversy  in  1731—32  had  resulted  in  the  triumph 
of  an  extreme  party  which  made  communion,  even  in 
prayer,  with  those  who  had  not  passed  under  hands  a 
matter  of  discipline,  and  which  held  that  "  all  those  who 
took  anything  for  preaching  were  like  Simon  Magus." 
The  leader  of  this  party  was  Samuel  Winsor.  He  was 
opposed  by  Governor  Jenckes,  James  Brown,  and  others. 
The  church  was  divided,  but  Winsor  became  the  pastor  of 
the  principal  part  in  1732.  He  continued  in  office  until 
his  death,  in  1758,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  who  did 
little  for  the  advancement  of  the  cause.  The  church  had  de- 
generated into  a  narrow  sectarianism  that  caused  it  to  hold 
ri-gorously  aloof  from  the  great  revival  movement,  and 
during  these  years  was  more  dead  than  alive.  The  open- 
ing of  Rhode  Island  College  in  Providence,  with  James 
Manning  as  president,  in  1770,  marks  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era  in  the  history  of  this  unfortunate  church.  Man- 
ning was  born  in  EHzabethtown,  N.  J.,  October  22,  1738. 
In  1762  he  had  been  graduated  from  Princeton  College, 
and  in  the  following  year  he  had  been  ordained  by  the 
EHzabethtown  church  as  an  itinerant  minister.  He  had 
been  selected  by  his  brethren  of  the  Philadelphia  Associa- 
tion to  lead  in  founding  a  Baptist  educational  institution  in 
Rhode  Island.  It  was  decided  to  begin  work  at  Warren, 
where  a  generous  support  was  offered  him  by  a  band  of 
Baptists  whose  membership  was  in  the  Swansea  church. 
Thither  he  went  in  the  summer  of  i  764,  and  in  October  a 
church  was  organized,  which  prospered  under  his  minis- 


254 


THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 


try.  The  college  and  its  president  removed  to  Providence 
in  1770.  He  was  from  time  to  time  invited  by  the  church 
to  preach,  and  joined  with  its  members  in  the  breaking  of 
bread.  This  was  contrary  to  the  principles  of  Elder  Win- 
sor  and  some  others,  as  it  had  come  to  be  known  that 
Manning  did  not  consider  the  laying  on  of  hands  obliga- 
tory, and  that  he  favored  congregational  singing.  A  large 
majority  of  the  church  desired  his  services,  and  when  Win- 
sor  and  his  adherents  had  withdrawn  and  formed  a  sepa- 
rate congregation  (1771),  Manning  was  invited  to  preach 
regularly  and  to  administer  the  ordinances.  Backus  informs 
us  that  "  though  his  powers  of  mind  and  human  accom- 
plishments were  very  great,  yet  he  used  great  plainness 
of  speech,  and  was  as  easily  understood  by  the  common 
people  as  almost  any  preacher  in  the  land.  And  few  men 
ever  prized  the  special  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in 
preaching,  more  than  he  did."  A  visit  to  the  Philadel- 
phia Association  in  1774,  where  he  heard  the  unlearned 
but  eloquent  and  zealous  Daniel  Fristoe,  of  Virginia, 
kindled  afresh  his  zeal  and  courage.  Before  the  close 
of  1775  he  had  baptized  into  the  Providence  church  one 
hundred  and  ten  converts,  and  a  number  of  those  who 
had  been  converted  in  his  meetings  had  united  with  the 
New  Light  church  under  Mr.  Snow.  Thus  the  church 
was  brought  into  the  front  rank  of  Baptist  churches,  a  posi- 
tion that  it  has  held  to  the  present  time.  A  meeting-house 
costing  about  ^7000  was  erected  in  1775,  one  of  the  pur- 
poses specified  being  "  to  hold  commencement  in."  A 
Charitable  Society  was  organized  in  1774  and  was  char- 
tered by  the  General  Assembly.  The  value  of  so  well  or- 
ganized and  eflficient  a  church,  under  a  model  leader  like 
Manning,  at  the  educational  center  of  the  denomination, 
cannot  be  overestimated.  Manning  never  considered  him- 
self pastor  of  the  church,  but  served  it  with  considerable 


Chap,  i.]  FIRST  CHURCH,  XElVPORr.  255 

regularity  till  1786  and  occasionally  afterward.  Under 
Stephen  Gano,  a  nephew  of  President  Manning,  who  served 
the  church  from  1792  till  his  death  in  1828,  the  prosperity 
of  the  church  was  continued,  one  hundred  and  sixty-five 
members  having  been  added  as  a  result  of  a  revival  near 
the  beginning  of  his  ministry. 

There  is  less  of  interest  in  the  history  of  the  First  Church 
of  Newport  during  this  period.  Callender  continued  pastor 
till  his  death  in  i  748.  Unfortunately,  he  strongly  opposed 
the  revival,  regarding  Whitefield  as  a  second  George  Fox. 
The  church  seems  to  have  enjoyed  no  extensive  work  of 
grace  till  the  present  century.  Pr(3bably  the  ablest  pastor 
after  Callender  was  Benjamin  Foster,  a  graduate  of  Yale  in 
I  774.  While  in  college  he  was  appointed  to  defend  infant 
baptism  in  a  public  debate.  The  result  of  his  industrious 
search  for  arguments  was  a  failure  to  find  any  that  satis- 
fied him.  He  studied  theology  under  Samuel  Stillman, 
of  Boston,  and  became  one  of  the  ablest  theologians  that 
the  denomination  possessed.  His  stay  in  Newport  was 
brief  (1785-88).  His  acceptance  of  a  call  to  New  York 
was  strongly  opposed  by  the  church.  Like  some  other  of 
the  older  churches,  this  church  for  some  time  held  aloof 
from  the  Warren  Association  (organized  in  1767),  and 
having  afterward  united  with  it  subsequently  withdrew. 
This  attitude  of  the  church  may  have  been  due,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  extreme  regard  for  church  independency,  and, 
on  the  other,  to  imperfect  sympathy  with  the  New  Light 
Baptists,  who  were  leaders  in  this  and  every  other  aggress- 
ive and  progressive  measure. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  this  church  was  one 
of  the  first  to  introduce  instrumental  music  The  instru- 
ment was  a  bass  viol  and  caused  considerable  commotion. 
This  occurred  early  in  the  present  century. 

The  First  Baptist  Church  of  Boston  was  also,  unfortu- 


256  ■  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  il. 

nately,  on  the  wrong  side  in  relation  to  the  revival.  The 
pastor,  Jeremy  Condy  (1739-65),  was  a  Harvard  graduate 
and  a  pronounced  Arminian.  He  claimed,  in  1742,  that 
even  if  he  should  preach  election  it  would  offend  the  ma- 
jority of  the  church.  This  fact,  together  with  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  pastor  and  a  majority  of  the  members  to  the 
revival,  led  to  the  withdrawal  of  a  number  of  the  most 
zealous  and  progressi\-e  members  and  the  organization  of 
a  second  church,  Calvinistic  in  doctrine  and  sympathetic 
with  the  New  Light  movement.  The  disaffected  element 
sent  to  the  church  a  somewhat  elaborate  statement  of  the 
grounds  of  their  dissatisfaction  and  of  the  terms  on  which 
they  would  remain  in  the  church.  They  represent  the 
pastor  as  holding  general  redemption,  being  a  free-wilier, 
holding  to  falling  from  grace,  and  denying  original  sin. 
"  We  mean  by  his  denying  original  sin,  that  he  softens, 
moderates,  and  explains  away  the  guilt,  malignity,  corrup- 
tion, and  depravity  of  human  nature  exactly  as  the  high 
Arminian  clergy  forever  do.  .  .  .  Whenever  we  have 
heard  him  discourse  on  the  new  birth,  his  sermons  were 
so  ill  grounded,  so  intermixed  with  man's  free-will  agency, 
and  so  widely  different  from  what  our  Lord  taught  and 
intended  thereby,  that  we  cannot  avoid  questioning  whether 
he  ever  experienced  the  saving  operation  of  that  most  im- 
portant doctrine  in  his  own  soul.  We  were  sufficiently 
affrighted  at  a  declaration  in  one  of  his  sermons,  that 
Christians  cannot  know  or  distinguish  the  operation  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  upon  their  souls  from  the  operation  of  their 
own  minds.  This  assertion  we  look  upon  to  be  of  the 
most  dangerous  tendency."  The  First  Church  remained 
in  a  languishing  condition  until  Samuel  Stillman  became 
pastor,  in  1765.  Stillman  was  a  native  of  Philadelphia 
(born  1737).  He  had  received  a  good  classical  education, 
and    had   been   trained   for  the   ministry  by  Oliver  Hart, 


CiiAi'.  I.J  SECOND    CHURCH,   BOSTON.  257 

pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Charleston,  S.  C. 
He  was  ordained  as  an  evangeHst  by  this  church  in  1759. 
He  was  one  of  the  most  amiable,  eloquent,  and  useful  min- 
isters of  his  time.  For  forty  years  he  ministered  in  Bos- 
ton, and  it  is  said  that  no  stranger  visiting  the  city  failed 
to  hear  him.  A  revival  began  in  i  769,  and  in  three  years 
eighty  members  were  added,  more  than  doubling  the  mem- 
bership. The  church  was  much  scattered  during  the  war, 
but  in  I  785  the  pastor  returned  to  his  post,  and  through 
revivals  in  this  year  and  in  1 790  large  numbers  were  added. 

The  leaders  in  the  Second  Church  (organized  in  i  743) 
were  James  Bound,  John  Dabney,  Thomas  Boucher,  and 
John  Proctor.  Ephraim  Bound,  then  a  young  man,  be- 
came pastor.  There  was  considerable  difficulty  in  making 
arrangements  for  his  ordination,  as  most  of  the  Baptist 
churches  were  opposed  to  the  revival.  It  was  decided  to 
seek  the  assistance  of  Elder  Valentine  Wightman,  of  Gro- 
ton.  Conn.,  who,  though  he  had  been  for  many  years  affili- 
ated with  the  General  (Six  Principle)  Baptists,  had  entered 
heartily  into  the  revival  movement  and  was  understood  to 
hold  to  the  doctrines  of  grace.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Dr.  John  Gill,  the  famous  English  Baptist  dix^ine,  sent 
the  new  church  a  communion  service,  baptismal  robes,  and 
a  number  of  books.  The  church  prospered  under  the  min- 
istry of  Bound  until  the  pastor  was  stricken  by  parah'sis 
in  I  762,  when  it  had  reached  a  membership  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty. 

The  Swansea  and  Rehoboth  churches  held  resolutely 
aloof  from  the  New  Light  movement  and  for  years  would 
enter  into  no  relations  with  the  Separate  Baptists.  In  1  754 
some  Baptist  ministers  from  New  Jerse)'  visited  them  and 
sought,  with  some  effect,  to  remove  their  prejudices  against 
their  New  Light  brethren.  It  w;is  not  until  i  7/ 1  that  these 
churches  threw  off  their  lethargy  and  entered  heartily  into 


258  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

the  revival  movement.  Several  hundred  were  added  to 
the  churches  at  this  time.  An  even  greater  work  of  grace 
covered  these  communities  in  1780,  when  singing  was  in- 
troduced into  the  Second  Swansea  Church.  As  a  result 
of  the  great  ingathering  of  1771,  and  the  close  sympathy 
into  which  the  Baptists  were  brought  with  their  pedobaptist 
New  Light  brethren,  a  church  was  formed  in  Rehoboth 
under  the  leadership  of  Jacob  Hicks,  which  held  that  bap- 
tism by  immersion  ought  not  to  be  made  a  term  of  com- 
munion. By  the  close  of  the  century  the  practice  of  this 
church  had  come  into  substantial  harmony  with  that  of  the 
Baptist  churches  in  general. 

Under  the  influence  of  a  baptized  evangelist  named 
Elhanan  Winchester,  members  of  a  Separate  Congrega- 
tional church  in  Rehoboth  formed  an  open-communion 
society  in  1771.  Winchester  was  ordained  as  pastor,  but 
soon  afterward  became  convinced  of  the  inconsistency  of 
the  position  he  had  assumed,  and  declared  that  he  could 
no  more  administer  the  Supper  to  any  who  were  only 
sprinkled  in  infancy.  The  church  censured  and  dismissed 
him.  It  was  nearly  extinct  at  the  close  of  the  last  century. 
Winchester  became  a  chief  leader  in  the  Universalist  move- 
ment. A  third  open-communion  church  was  formed  on 
the  north  border  of  Rehoboth  in  1777.  This  also  had 
grown  very  feeble  within  twenty  years  of  its  organization. 
These  are  by  no  means  all  of  the  Baptist  churches  that 
were  constituted  in  Swansea  and  Rehoboth  during  this 
period.  The  tendency  to  disunion  on  matters  of  minor 
importance  was  more  marked  here  than  elsewhere.  This 
may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  community  never 
enjoyed  the  services  of  a  great  Baptist  leader. 

The  Haverhill,  Mass.,  church  deserves  to  be  specially 
mentioned  on  account  of  the  distinguished  services  of  its 
founder  and  pastor,  the  influential  position  that  it  came  to 


Chap,  i.]  HEZEKIAH  SMITH.  259 

occupy  as  one  of  the  most  progressive  churches  in  the  de- 
nomination, and  the  completeness  with  which  it  ilhistrates 
the  sufiferings  and  the  triumphs  of  Baptists  during   this 
period.      Hezekiah  Smith  was  born  in  Hampstead,  L.  I., 
April,    1737.      In  1756   he  was  baptized  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Morristown,  N.  J.,  church  by  John  Gano,  who 
was  to  become  one  of   the  most  distinguished  ministers 
of  his  time.      After  preparatory  studies  at  the   Hopewell 
(Baptist)  Academy,  he  pursued  a  full   course  of  study  at 
Princeton,  where,  along  with  James  Manning,  he  was  grad- 
uated in  September,  i  762.    Shortly  after  his  graduation  he 
started  southward  on  an  evangelistic  tour,  preaching  in  all 
the  intervening  colonies  with  great  acceptance  and  success, 
and   for  some   time   making  Charleston,  S.   C,  his   head- 
quarters.     He  became  a  member  of  the  Charleston  church 
and  by  it  was  ordained  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  (Sep- 
tember, 1763).      The   decision   of   Manning  to   engage   in 
educational  work  in   Rhode  Island  seems  to  have  deter- 
mined him,  providence  favoring,   to  make  New  England 
the  center  of  his  evangelistic  labors.      After  visiting  and 
preaching  in  a  number  of  communities,  including  Boston, 
where  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Stillman,  who  also 
had  within  a  few  months  come  from  South   Carolina,  he 
visited     several     townships    on    the    Merrimac,    including 
Haverhill.      Most  of  the  ministers  of  this  region  had  op- 
posed the  revival,  and  the  New  Light  doctrine  had  made 
little  impression.      A  bitter  controversy  had  occurred  in  the 
West  Parish  of  Haverhill  between  the  pastor  and  his  people, 
and  had  resulted  in  his  exclusion  from  the  meeting-house 
and  finally  in  his  dismission.      For  years  the  church  had 
been  pastorless,  and  the  meeting-house  was  gladly  thrown 
open  to  the  eloquent  evangelist.      Here  he  preached  for 
several  months,  and  evangelized  meanwhile  through  sev- 
eral neighboring  townships,      He  did  not  proclaim  himself 


26o  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

a  Baptist  until  such  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  him 
to  induce  him  to  accept  the  vacant  pastorate  that  he  felt 
compelled  to  explain  his  position.  The  effect  of  this  dec- 
laration was  to  cool  the  ardor  of  his  pedobaptist  admirers 
and  to  arouse  a  bitterness  of  opposition  that  has  few  par- 
allels even  in  Massachusetts.  But  a  considerable  number, 
including  some  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential  mem- 
bers of  the  community,  accepted  his  views  of  baptism  and 
entreated  him  to  remain  and  lead  in  the  founding  of  a 
Baptist  church.  He  continued  to  labor  and  soon  began  to 
baptize  ;  but  even  after  a  generous  salary  had  been  voted 
him  he  hesitated  for  many  months  to  accept  the  pastorate. 
The  church  was  organized  in  May,  1665,  and  in  less  than 
three  years  had  one  hundred  members.  Every  precaution 
was  taken  to  secure  for  the  members  the  exemption  that 
the  law  afforded.  In  company  with  representatives  of  the 
church,  Smith  made  hurried  visits  to  Boston,  Warren,  and 
Middleborough  soon  after  the  organization  of  the  church, 
to  secure  from  the  Baptist  pastors  the  certificates  that  tlie 
new  church  was  "Anabaptist,"  and  having  succeeded  lost 
no  time  in  furnishing  individual  certificates  to  those  of 
the  "Anabaptist  persuasion,"  signed  by  himself  and  "  two 
principal  members  of  the  church."  For  years  the  church 
suffered  greatly  from  the  unfriendliness  of  tlie  local  au- 
thorities, who  made  it  as  difficult  as  possible  for  Baptists 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  exemption  law. 

During  Smith's  pastorate  of  forty-one  years  his  labors 
were  abundant  not  only  in  the  community  immediately 
surrounding  his  church,  but  throughout  the  colonies.  He 
took  the  deepest  interest  in  Rhode  Island  College,  and 
spent  on  one  occasion  eight  months  in  the  South,  without 
compensation,  in  raising  funds  for  its  equipment.  As  a 
member  of  its  board  he  had  a  large  share  in  shaping  its 
policy.      During  the  war  of  independence    he  served  for 


Chap,  i.]  BA'OirX   UXIVERSITY.  26 1 

seven  years  as  brigade  chaplain.  He  entered  into  the 
colonial  cause  with  great  enthusiasm  and  was  at  the  same 
time  active  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel  and  as  a  counselor 
of  some  of  the  leaders  in  the  struggle.  He  was  one  of  the 
leading  spirits  in  the  organization  (1767)  and  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Warren  Association.  Smith  took  his  place 
side  by  side  with  Backus,  Manning,  and  Stillman  in  well- 
directed  efforts  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  assessment  laws 
and  the  abolition  of  the  parish  system.  He  was  the  fore- 
most Baptist  evangelist  of  the  time  and  he  was  instrumental 
in  the  conversion  of  thousands. 

The  founding  of  Brown  Unixersity  was  an  event  of 
primary  importance  in  the  history  of  American  Baptists 
and  meant  much  for  the  future  standing  and  influence  of 
the  denomination.  The  idea  of  founding  such  an  institu- 
tion in  Rhode  Island  seems  to  have  originated  with  Mor- 
gan Edwards,  of  Philadelphia,  who  in  1762  brought  the 
matter  before  the  Philadelphia  Association.  James  Man- 
ning, a  recent  graduate  of  Princeton,  a  man  of  brilliant 
parts  and  sterling  worth,  was  encouraged  in  1763  to  visit 
Newport,  confer  with  brethren  there,  and  take  such  meas- 
ures as  might  seem  prudent  for  securing  a  charter  and  es- 
tablishing a  college.  In  July,  i  763,  he  visited  Newport  and 
conferred  with  Hon.  Samuel  Ward,  Colonel  John  Gardner, 
Colonel  Job  Bennet,  Hon.  Josias  Lyndon,  and  other  leading 
Baptists,  who  heartily  approved  of  the  plan.  Steps  were 
immediately  taken  for  securing  a  charter.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles, 
a  learned  Congregational  mini.'^ter,  afterward  president  of 
Yale  College,  was  asked  to  make  a  draft  of  a  charter.  He 
inserted  provisions  more  favorable  to  Presbyterians  than 
the  Baptists  had  intended,  and  left  the  predominance  of 
Baptist  influence  insecure.  The  charter  thus  framed  was 
about  to  pass  the  Assembly,  but  this  was  prevented  by 
the  energetic  action  of  Hon.  Daniel  Jenckes,  who  had  de- 


262  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

tected  the  unfavorable  bearing  of  some  of  its  provisions 
on  Baptist  interests.  Considerable  commotion  was  caused 
by  the  discovery  of  the  character  of  Dr.  Stiles's  work,  and 
Baptists,  somewhat  ungenerously  perhaps,  accused  him  of 
deliberate  fraud.  When  the  Philadelphia  Baptists  learned 
of  these  transactions  they  sent  Samuel  Jones  and  R.  S. 
Jones  to  Rhode  Island  to  look  after  the  matter.  With 
their  help  and  that  of  Thomas  Eyres,  now  of  Newport,  a 
charter  was  drafted,  which  passed  the  General  Assembly 
in  1 764.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  projectors  of  the 
college,  while  vesting  the  ultimate  control  in  the  Baptist 
denomination,  to  give  a  liberal  share  of  control  to  other 
denominations.  It  was  intended  that  it  should  be  a  Chris- 
tian college,  in  which  the  youth  of  Rhode  Island  and  other 
colonies  might  receive  advantages  similar  to  those  afforded 
at  Harvard,  Yale,  and  Princeton,  open  on  equal  conditions 
to  people  of  all  denominations  or  of  no  denomination.  Ac- 
cording to  the  charter,  twenty-two  of  the  thirty-six  trus- 
tees are  to  be  forever  Baptists  ;  five  are  to  be  Quakers,  four, 
Congregationalists,  and  five.  Episcopalians.  Of  the  twelve 
fellows,  "  eight  are  to  be  Baptists,  and  the  rest  indefinitely 
of  any  or  all  denominations."  The  following  extract  from 
the  charter  shows  the  liberal  spirit  in  which  the  college 
was  founded  :  "  Into  this  liberal  and  catholic  institution 
shall  never  be  admitted  any  religious  tests.  But,  on  the 
contrary,  all  the  members  hereof  shall  forever  enjoy  full, 
free,  absolute,  and  uninterrupted  liberty  of  conscience  ;  and 
that  the  places  of  professors,  tutors,  and  all  other  officers, 
the  president  alone  excepted,  shall  be  free  and  open  for 
all  denominations  of  Protestants ;  and  that  }'ouths  of  all 
religious  denominations  shall  and  may  be  admitted  to  the 
equal  advantages,  emoluments,  and  honors  of  the  college 
or  university ;  and  that  the  public  teaching  shall,  in  gen- 
eral, respect  the  sciences ;   and   that  the  sectarian  diff"er- 


ciiAi'.  I.]  BROjrx  rxir/^Ks/TV.  26^ 

ences  sheill  not  make  any  part  of  the  public  and  classical 
instruction." 

The  trustees  and  fellows  included  the  most  prominent 
men  of  all  denominations — governors,  ex-governors,  gov- 
ernors-to-be, judges,  military  dignitaries,  etc.  Among  the 
Baptists  were  Samuel  Ward  (governor.  Supreme  Court 
justice,  congressman,  etc.),  Chief-Justice  Daniel  Jenckes, 
Josias  Lyndon  (afterv^ard  governor),  Nicholas  Brown  (a 
chief  benefactor  of  the  college).  Colonel  Job  Bennet  (who 
was  made  treasurer),  Dr.  Joshua  Babcock  (afterward  major- 
general),  Dr.  Thomas  Eyres  (who  was  appointed  secre- 
tary), Samuel  Stillman,  John  Gano,  and  Morgan  Edwards. 
Among  the  fellows  was  Hezekiah  Smith,  who  from  the 
beginning  served  the  college  with  rare  devotion. 

The  material  resources  of  the  college  were  in  almost 
ludicrous  contrast  with  the  magnificent  board  of  trustees. 
About  two  thousand  dollars  were  subscribed  toward  its 
equipment,  but  there  was  no  endowment,  no  buildings,  no 
library,  no  faculty  but  Manning,  and  no  salary  provided 
for  him.  Morgan  Edwards  visited  England  in  the  interests 
of  the  college,  and  Hezekiah  Smith  made  an  extended  can- 
vass in  the  South,  especially  in  South  Carolina.  It  may 
seem  strange  that  the  dignitaries  appointed  as  trustees  did 
not  at  once  make  and  secure  from  their  well-to-do  friends 
liberal  contributions  for  the  equipment  of  the  college.  But 
there  was  probably  little  accumulated  wealth  at  that  time 
and  the  grace  of  gi\-ing  was  not  well  developed. 

Learning  that  there  were  a  number  of  the  members  of 
the  old  Swansea  church  residing  at  Warren  who  were  de- 
sirous of  forming  a  new  churcli.  Manning  arranged  to  take 
charge  of  this  new  interest  as  a  means  of  support,  and  to 
open  a  Latin  school' that  should  develop  into  the  pro- 
posed college.  He  began  work  in  1764.  A  year  later 
he  was  appointed  president  of  the  college  and  began  to 


264  ^'^^^   BJriVSTS.  [Per.  11. 

teach  the  studies  of  a  coUege  course  to  the  few  students 
who  presented  themselves.  The  first  commencement  was 
held  at  Warren  in.  I  769,  when  seven  young-  men,  several 
of  whom  afterward  attained  t^  distinction,  received  the 
baclielor's  degree. 

The  question  of  the  permanent  location  of  the  college 
had  soon  to  be  settled.  The  chief  competitors  were  New- 
port and  Providence.  Newport  was  twice  as  large  and 
probably  more  than  twice  as  wealthy  as  Providence,  and 
Baptist  numbers  and  influence  were  proportionately  large. 
Tt  is  to  this  day  a  mystery  to  Newport  people  why  Provi- 
dence should  have  been  chosen  in  preference.  Providence 
offered  ^4280,  which  was  slightly  above  the  Newport 
offer;  but  this  alone  is  scarcely  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
the  choice.  It  may  be  that  Manning  had  private  assur- 
ances of  generous  dealing  from  members  of  the  Brown 
family,  already  prosperous  and  interested  in  education. 
It  may  be  that  the  suspected  heterodoxy  of  certain  influ- 
ential Newport  Ikiptists  led  to  the  ignoring  of  what  seemed 
to  be  the  superior  claims  of  that  city.  Possibly  the  pros- 
pect of  being  able  to  support  himself  in  Providence  by 
preaching  may  have  led  Manning  to  prefer  the  latter  city. 

In  1770  the  college  removed  to  Providence.  Buildings 
were  soon  erected,  the  beginning  of  an  endowment  was 
created,  additional  instructors  were  secured,  and  the  work 
of  the  institution  began  to  compare  favorably  with  that  of 
the  older  colleges.  During  the  war  the  buildings  were 
used  for  barracks  and  other  government  jjurposes,  and  the 
work  of  instruction  was  sadly  interrupted.  After  the  war 
the  prosperity  of  the  college  went  hand  in  hand  with  tlie 
general  prosperity  of  the  denomination. 

It  is  somewhat  humiliating  to  find  the  college  corpora- 
tion voting  (1793)  to  petition  the  General  Assembly  for 
"  the  grant  of  a  lottery  of  four  thousand  dollars,  for  the 


Chap,  i.]  THE    WARREX  ASSOCLITION.  265 

purpose  of  purchasing  Dr.  Forbes'  Orrery  and  other  articles 
of  a  Philosophical  Apparatus ;  and  for  increasing  the  Col- 
lege library  ;  and  for  other  necessary  and  useful  purposes." 
Such  a  procedure  seems  at  that  time  to  have  been  regarded 
as  entirely  legitimate  and  to  have  called  forth  few  protests. 
In  1804  Rhode  Island  College  became  Brown  Univer- 
sity, in  honor  of  Nicholas  Brown,  whose  liberality  and  that 
of  members  of  the  family  to  the  present  time  have  amply 
justified  the  change  of  name. 

Manning  served  the  college  with  noble  self-sacrifice  and 
the  best  kind  of  success  till  his  death,  in  1791.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Jonathan  Maxcy,  a  graduate  of  the  college, 
who  served  ably  until  1802,  when  he  accepted  the  presi- 
dency of  Union  College.  He  afterward  became  president 
of  South  Carolina  College,  where  he  taught  and  influenced 
for  good  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  Baptists. 
The  president  during  the  closing  years  of  this  period  was 
Dr.  Asa  Messer,  also  a  graduate  of  the  college.  Since 
that  time  the  university  has  been  fortunate  in  having  a 
succession  of  presidents  of  the  highest  rank,  including 
FrSncis  Way  land,  Barnas  Sears,  Alexis  Caswell,  Ezekiel 
G.  Robinson,  and  E.  Benjamin  Andrews ;  and  its  influence 
for  good  has  been  incalculable. 

The  Warren  Association  was  organized  at  Warren,  R.  I., 
in  1 767.  The  moving  spirit  was  undoubtedly  James  Man- 
ning, but  he  had  the  hearty  co5peration  of  Hezekiah  Smith 
and  others  in  New  England,  and  the  encouragement  of  the 
Philadelphia  Association.  Representatives  of  ten  churches 
assembled  to  consider  the  proposal  to  organize ;  but  those 
of  four  churches  only  saw  their  way  clear  to  join  in  the 
enterprise.  Even  Isaac  Backus,  who  was  afterward  to  take 
so  prominent  a  part  in  its  proceedings,  felt  constrained  to 
hold  aloof  until  i  770.  Backus's  church,  and  many  others, 
"  waited  until  they  could  be  satisfied  that  the  Association 


266  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  ii. 

did  not  assume  any  jurisdiction  over  the  churches,  before 
joining,  and  they  now  joined  upon  the  express  condition 
that  no  complaint  should  ever  be  received  by  the  Associa- 
tion against  any  particular  church  that  was  not  of  the  As- 
sociation, nor  from  any  censured  member  of  any  of  our 
churches."  The  four  constituent  churches  were  the  War- 
ren, R.  I.,  and  the  Haverhill,  Bellingham,  and  Second 
Middleborough,  of  Massachusetts.  Scruples  gradually 
gave  place  to  confidence,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
churches  of  New  England  identified  themselves  with  the 
Warren  Association,  until  for  convenience  other  associa- 
tions were  formed  in  various  localities.  The  chief  objects 
of  Manning,  Smith,  and  the  other  fathers  of  the  Associa- 
tion were  the  securing  of  denominational  codperation  in 
education,  evangelization,  and  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty.  How  nobly  it  subserved  the  last  end  will  appear 
in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

During  this  period  the  Baptist  cause  was  extended  into 
those  New  England  colonies  that  had  not  been  occupied 
up  to  I  740.  There  were  a  few  Baptists  in  New  Haiyp- 
shire,  but  no  church  organization  before  the  beginning  of 
the  present  period.  The  first  organization  was  effected  at 
Newton  in  1755.  From  1767  onward  Hezekiah  Smith, 
pastor  of  the  Haverhill,  Mass.,  church,  labored  throughout 
the  neighboring  townships  of  New  Hampshire  with  gratify- 
ing results.  His  own  diary  gives  a  picturesque  account  of 
the  various  meetings  held.  In  May,  1767,  he  preached  at 
Hampstead,  Chester,  Suncook,  Dunbarton,  and  Deerfield  ;  in 
June  he  assisted  the  Newton  church  in  securing  exemption 
from  taxation  to  the  standing  order,  and  preached  at  Brent- 
wood, New  Market,  Lee,  Madbury,  and  Phillipstown,  (Me.). 
At  the  last-mentioned  place  he  "  preached  in  a  barn,  be- 
cause there  was  not  room  to  hold  the  people  in  the  meeting- 
house, and  likewise  because  the  barn  was  handiest  to  the 


Chap,  i.]  BAPTISTS  IX  XKW  HAMPSHIRE.  267 

river,  where  I  baptized  that  day  Simon  Coffin  and  Sarah 
Coffin."  In  August  he  baptized  at  Brentwood.  "  After 
the  baptism  at  the  water-side  I  spoke  some  time  to  the 
people,  it  being  one  of  the  most  solemn  times,  and  of  the 
greatest  emotion  that  I  ever  saw  at  the  water-side."  At 
Deerfield  Smith  baptized  the  Congregational  minister, 
Eliphalet  Smith,  his  wife,  and  twelve  other  members  of 
his  church,  "  who  the  same  day  were  embodied  into  a 
Baptist  church"  (June  14,  1770).  It  may  be  remarked 
that  Smith's  \isit  on  this  occasion  was  in  response  to  a 
special  invitation  from  pastor  and  people.  Two  days  later 
he  baptized  at  Epping  Dr.  Samuel  Shepard  and  six  others. 
Shepard  was  ordained  a  year  later  and  proved  one  of  the 
most  useful  of  the  early  New^  Hampshire  ministers.  Two 
days  later  (June  i8th)  Smith  preached  in  the  Congrega- 
tional meeting-house  at  New  Market  and  "  had  a  confer- 
ence with  their  church  about  some  of  their  members  who 
wanted  to  be  baptized;  but  the  church  as  a  church  would 
not  give  me  leave  to  baptize  any  of  their  members."  Two 
days  later  still  he  visited  Stratham,  where  he  examined  a 
number  for  baptism,  preached  from  John  vii.  t,,'] ,  "and 
then  baptized  fourteen  persons.  ...  A  glorious  day  has 
this  been."  The  next  day  he  "  went  home,  after  having 
baptized  thirty-eight  persons  within  seven  days,  and 
preached  seven  sermons."  On  July  (or  August)  i8th 
he  preached  and  baptized  again  at  Stratham.  "  After 
baptism  I  entered  into  a  public  debate  upon  baptism  with 
Rev.  Joseph  Adams  and  R.  Marshall.  .  .  .  After  debate 
I  assisted  in  constituting  a  Baptist  church  there."  Dr. 
Shepard  became  pastor  of  this  along  with  other  churches. 
On  a  subsequent  visit  to  Stratham  in  September,  "  by 
reason  of  the  number  of  the  people,"  Smith  was  "  obliged 
to  preach  out  of  doors,  under  an  oak-tree."  On  October 
9th  he  preached  out  of  doors  at  Exeter,  and  "  baptized 


268  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

Joseph  Sanborn,  of  Epping,  a  Congregational  preacher," 
and  five  others.  "  It  was  judged  that  two  thousand  people 
were  at  the  water-side  to  see  the  ordinance  administered." 
The  Brentwood  church  w^as  organized  in  1772  and  enjoyed 
the  ministry  of  Dr.  Shepard  along  with  Stratham,  etc. 
The  following  year  a  church  was  constituted  at  North- 
wood,  chiefly  of  members  from  Stratham  and  Epping, 
with  Edmund  Pillsbury,  of  Haverhill,  as  pastor.  Baptist 
churches  multiplied  in  New  Hampshire  from  1780  onward, 
partly  through  the  zealous  missionary  activity  of  Caleb 
Blood,  of  Marlow,  Job  Seamans,  of  Mas.sachusetts,  and 
Biel  Ledoyt,  of  Connecticut.  Nine  churches  were  organ- 
ized during  1780.  Thomas  Baldwin,  afterward  to  become 
famous  as  pastor  of  the  Second  Church,  Boston,  and  as  a 
leader  in  missionary  enterprise,  began  preaching  at  Canaan 
in  1782,  when  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  performed  much 
fruitful  service.  The  New  Hampshire  Association  was 
formed  in  1785  of  five  Maine  and  three  New  Hampshire 
churches.  By  1 795  there  were  in  the  State  forty-one 
churches,  with  a  membership  of  two  thousand  five  hundred 
and  sixty-two. 

The  people  of  Vermont  were  slow  to  accept  Baptist 
teaching.  In  1768  a  party  of  Massachusetts  Separates, 
who  had  moved  to  Vermont  to  enjoy  greater  freedom, 
adopted  Baptist  principles  and  were  constituted  a  Baptist 
church  at  Shaftsbury.  The  second  and  third  Vermont 
Baptist  churches  were  organized  in  Guilford  township 
(1770  and  1772).  The  Pownal  church  followed  in  1773. 
Toward  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war  there  was  a 
great  influx  of  population  into  the  colony,  including  many 
Baptists  and  a  number  of  able  ministers.  The  Shaftsbury 
Association  was  formed  in  1781.  By  1790  the  number  of 
churches  had  risen  to  thirty-four  and  the  membership  to 
sixteen  hundred  and  ten.      Four  other  associations  were 


Chap,  i.]  VERMOXT  AXD   MAIXE.  269 

formed  in  Vermont  before  the  close  of  the  centur}' — the 
Woodstock  (i  783),  the  Vermont  (1785),  the  Lej'den  (i  793), 
and  the  Richmond  (1795). 

Nothing  was  attempted  in  the  way  of  Baptist  organiza- 
tion in  Maine,  after  the  removal  of  Screven  and  his  breth- 
ren to  South  CaroHna  (1684),  till  1767,  when  Hezekiah 
Smith  made  an  evangelistic  tour  in  the  colony,  baptizing 
a  number  of  believers  at  Gorham,  Block  House,  Sanford, 
etc.  In  I  768  Smith  aided  in  constituting  churches  at  Gor- 
ham and  Berwick.      The  Sanford  church  was  constituted  in 

1773- 

In  Maine  also  the  closing  years  of  the  Revolution  were 
a  time  of  great  denominational  increase.  The  offer  of  free 
homesteads  at  the  close  of  the  war  attracted  large  numbers 
of  soldiers  and  others  to  the  unsettled  and  sparsely  setded 
regions,  and  the  Baptist  cause  was  thereby  reinforced. 
Among  the  most  successful  Baptist  workers  were  Nathan- 
iel Lord,  James  Potter,  Job  Macomber,  Isaac  Case,  and 
Elisha  Snow.  Among  the  earhest  churches  organized  in 
Maine  were  the  Berwick,  Wells,  Sanford,  Coxhall,  and  Shap- 
leigh.  The  Bowdoinham  church  was  constituted  in  1784 
as  a  result  of  the  labors  of  Potter  and  Macomber,  with  the 
latter  as  pastor.  The  Thomaston  church  was  constituted 
a  year  later  through  the  efforts  of  Case.  From  this  time 
onward  Baptist  churches  multiplied.  The  Bowdoinham 
Association  was  formed  in  1787  and  consisted  of  three 
churches.  By  the  close  of  the  centur)^  the  number  of 
churches  was  thirty-two  and  the  membership  fifteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight. 

Arminianism  of  the  Wesleyan  type  appeared  among  the 
Baptists  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont  about 
1778.  In  September,  1770,  Benjamin  Randall,  a  godless 
young  man  of  twenty-one,  heard  Whitefield  at  Portsmouth, 
N.  H.      Two  davs  after  leavins:  Portsmouth  the  ureat  evan- 


2  70  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'kr.  ii. 

L;'elist  died  at  Newbiiryport,  Mass.  Randall  was  more  pro- 
foundly impressed  by  the  news  of  his  death  than  he  had 
been  by  the  preaching.  He  was  converted  and  soon  felt 
strongly  impelled  to  evangelize.  This  prompting  he  hjng 
resisted.  In  1775  he  severed  his  connection  with  the 
Congregational  church  of  which  he  was  a  member,  on  ac- 
count of  the  laxity  of  its  disciplii\e.  The  birth  of  his  third 
child  led  him  to  investigate  the  subject  of  infant  baptism, 
and  the  result  was  his  rejection  of  the  rite.  He  was  bap- 
tized into  the  fellowship  of  the  Berwick,  Me.,  Baptist  church 
and  soon  afterward  began  his  fruitful  career  as  an  evan- 
gelist. In  1778  he  located  at  New  Durham,  N.  H.,  but 
covered  a  wide  territory  with  his  evangelistic  acti\'ity.  It 
soon  appeared  to  his  Baptist  brethren  that  he  was  not 
teaching  the  commonly  accepted  type  of  doctrine.  Con- 
troversy arose  and  raged  (1779),  and  he  was  convicted 
of  Arminianism  and  disfellowshiped  by  a  council  of  his 
brethren.  Several  other  ministers  in  eastern  New-  Hamp- 
shire and  w^es'tern  Maine  expressed  sympathy  with  his 
views,  notably  Pelatiah  Tingley,  Samuel  Weeks,  Daniel 
Hibbard,  Tosier  Lord,  and  Edward  Lock.  In  1 780  a 
Baptist  church  was  organized  at  New  Durham  in  sym- 
pathy with  Randall's  views.  B}^  i  790  there  were  eighteen 
churches  in  the  connection,  with  about  eight  hundred  mem- 
bers. Randall  was  abundant  in  labors,  and  his  principles 
were  soon  firmly  planted  throughout  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Vermont.  The  doctrinal  position  of  the  party 
was  that  of  evangelical  Arminianism.  Open  communion 
was  early  adopted  and  has  since  characterized  the  denom- 
ination. For  tw^enty  years  the  churches  refused  any  other 
designation  than  "  Baptist."  The  persistence  of  the  Regu- 
lar Baptists  in  calling  these  brethren  "  Free-willers  "  led  to 
their  adoption  of  the  name  "  Free-will  Baptist."  Randall 
died  in  1808,  and  a  period  of  denominational  anarchy  en- 
sued.     Quarterly  meetings  were  held  from  i  783  onward, 


Chap,  i.]  STATISTICS.  27 1 

but  no  general  denominational  organization  occurred  dur- 
ing this  period.  By  1 8 10  the  connection  embraced  about 
130  churches,  iio  ministers,  and  6000  members. 

A  few  statistics  will  show  how  largely  the  Baptist  cause 
in  New  England  profited  by  the  Great  Awakening.  In 
1740  there  were  in  Massachusetts  6  Baptist  churches,  in 
Rhode  Island  11,  in  Connecticut  4.  Most  of  these  were 
feeble  and  some  of  them  were  in  a  declining  state.  All 
but  four  or  five  seem  to  have  been  Arminian,  and  Armin- 
ianism  had  invaded  some  of  the  few  Calvinistic  churches. 
By  I  768  the  number  of  Baptist  churches  in  Massachusetts 
had  risen  to  30,  in  Connecticut  to  12,  in  Rhode  Island  to 
36.  The  Baptist  cause  had  taken  root  in  New  Hampshire 
and  was  represented  by  one  congregation.  But  only  a 
fair  beginning  had  as  yet  been  made.  The  Baptists  by 
this  time  had  attained  to  such  a  position  in  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  and  were  so  full  of  evangelistic  zeal,  that 
progress  was  henceforth  easy.  By  1790  Massachusetts 
had  92  Baptist  churches  and  6234  members;  Rhode 
Island,  38  churches  and  3502  members;  New  Hampshire, 
32  churches  and  1732  members;  Maine,  15  churches  and 
882  members;  Connecticut,  55  churches  and  3214  mem- 
bers; Vermont,  34  churches  and  16 10  members.  Twenty 
years  later  (1810-12)  Maine's  churches  had  increased  to 
103  and  her  membership  to  5294;  New  Hampshire  had 
69  churches  and  4940  members;  Vermont  had  76  churches 
and  5185  members;  Massachusetts  had  a  membership  of 
8104,  but  had  suffered  a  loss  of  one  in  the  number  of 
churches;  Connecticut  had  65  churches  and  5716  mem- 
bers; while  Rhode  Island  had  lost  both  in  churches  and 
members,  the  former  numbering  26  and  the  latter  3033. 
Six  Principle  and  Seventh-day  Baptists  are  probably  in- 
cluded in  the  statistics  for  1790  and  omitted  in  those  for 
1 8 10.  The  Free-will  Baptists  seem  to  be  omitted  in  the 
statistics  of  the  States  in  which  they  flourished. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    PHILADELPHIA    CENTER. ^ 

The  effects  of  the  Great  Awakening  were  less  marked 
in  the  cok^nies  inchided  at  the  time  in  the  Philadelphia 
Association  than  in  New  England.  This  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  Baptist  work  in  these  regions  was  already 
well  organized  and  was  relatively  free  from  the  hindering 
influences  that  in  New  England  could  be  ox'ercome  only 
by  a  great  religious  upheaval.  An  evangelical  Cah'inism, 
substantially  like  that  of  Whitefield  and  the  New  Lights, 
had  long  prevailed  among  the  Baptists  of  the  Philadelphia 
Association  As  Baptists  had  never  been  persecuted  in 
these  regions  there  was  not  that  bitter  sectarian  feeling 
that  led  the  Baptists  of  New  England  to  look  askance  at 
a  religious  movement  in  which  their  former  persecutors 
took  part.  The  Baptists  of  Pennsylvania  had  by  1 740 
already  reached  a  position  of  assured  strength  that  ena- 
bled them  to  assert  their  principles  with  the  utmost  de- 
cision, while  maintaining  the  most  friendly  relations  with 
their  brethren  of  other  denominations.  The  growth  of 
the  churches  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  during  this 
period  was  only  normal.  During  the  war  there  was  a 
marked  decline  of  membership  and  interest.  After  the 
war  there  were  years  of  large  ingathering.  A  few  statis- 
tics will  illustrate  the  numerical  condition  of  the  denomi- 


1  Cf.  Morgan  Edwards;  .Spencer;  Benedict;  Catlicart ;  "  Min.  Pliil.  Bapt. 
Assoc";  Cook;  "  Bapt.  Mem.,"  vol.  i.,  pji.  9  scij.,  74  .f<y.,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  197 
St-(].,  vol.  v.,  pp.  24  srq.,  36  si-(j.,  43  sci/.,  69  seq.  ;  and  Read  and  Burkitt. 

272 


Chap.  II.]  THE   PHILADELPHIA    ASSOCIATION.  273 

nation  within  the  bounds  of  the  Association.  In  i  762  the 
Association  comprised  churches  in  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey,  New  England,  New  York,  Virginia,  and  Mary- 
land, 29  in  all,  with  a  membership  of  13  18.  The  number 
of  baptisms  during  the  preceding  year  was  126.  In  1762 
the  number  of  churches  was  30,  the  number  of  baptisms 
132,  and  the  total  membership  1585.  In  1765,  33  churches 
are  reported,  308  baptisms,  and  a  membership  of  2234. 
In  1776,  42  churches  reported  188  baptisms  and  3013 
members.  In  1807,  although  the  constituency  of  the 
Association  had  been  limited  to  Pennsylvania  and  New 
Jersey  by  the  formation  of  other  associations,  29  churches 
are  reported,  251  baptisms,  and  3632  members.  In  181 2 
Pennsylvania  had  63  Baptist  churches  and  4365  members ; 
New  Jerse)^  35  churches  and  281 1  members;  Delaware, 
6  churches  and  480  members;  and  Marjdand,  14  churches 
and  697  members. 

The  territory  of  the  Philadelphia  Association  was  cov- 
ered in  general  by  the  evangelistic  efforts  of  the  Tennents 
and  their  supporters.  Though  they  had  been  cast  out  of 
the  Synod  at  an  early  period  of  the  re^'ival  movement, 
they  had  continued  their  work  with  unabated  zeal.  As 
the  Presbyterians  opposed  to  the  revival  had  no  such 
means  of  persecution  as  had  the  standing  order  in  New 
England,  the  New  Light  Presbyterians  were  called  upon 
to  suffer  nothing  worse  than  ecclesiastical  censure  and 
damaging  misrepresentation.  Retaining  the  very  effective 
Presbyterian  discipline,  and  educating  evangelists  under 
strong  Presbyterian  influence,  the  Presbyterians  of  Ten- 
nent's  school  showed  little  susceptibility  to  the  influence 
of  Baptist  principles.  It  is  a  historical  fact,  account  for 
it  as  we  may,  that  ground  once  preoccupied  by  Presby- 
terians is  relatively  irresponsive  to  Baptist  effort.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  in  a  single  case  a  Baptist  church  was 


2  74  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

formed  out  of  the  membership  of  a  New  Light  Presby- 
terian church  in  New  Jersey  or  Pennsylvania,  while  scores 
of  such  cases  occurred  among  the  Separate  churches  of 
New  England. 

Yet  the  Baptists  of  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Dela- 
ware, and  Maryland  enjoyed  a  gradual  growth  in  mem- 
bership, perfected  their  organization,  gave  much  help  and 
encouragement  to  those  who  were  laboring  in  regions 
where  circumstances  were  more  favorable  to  extensive 
aggressive  work,  promoted  the  formation  of  associations 
as  means  of  consolidating  and  conserving  the  results  of 
the  revival,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  the  educational 
work  of  the  denomination. 

Doctrinal  aberrations  appeared  from  time  to  time  in  in- 
dividuals and  in  churches,  but  the  Association  as  a  whole 
was  so  well  established  in  sound  doctrine  that  scarcely  a 
ripple  was  caused  thereby.  In  1 743  the  attention  of  the 
Association  was  called  to  the  fact  that  Joseph  Eaton, 
pastor  of  the  Montgomery  church,  had  used  expressions 
tending  to  cast  doubt  upon  "  the  eternal  generation  and 
Sonship  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  "  After  some  time 
spent  in  debate  thereon,"  the  accused  brother  "  stood  up, 
and  freely,  to  our  apprehension,  recanted,  renounced,  and 
condemned  all  expressions,  which  he  had  heretofore  used, 
whereby  his  brethren  at  Montgomery,  or  any  persons 
elsewhere,  were  made  to  believe  that  he  departed  from 
the  literal  sense  and  meaning  of  that  fundamental  article 
in  our  confession  of  faith."  The  apology  of  the  aged 
brother  was  accepted  as  satisfactory.  The  Association 
took  occasion  to  exhort  the  people  to  content  themselves 
and  be  satisfied  "  with  the  revealed  will  of  God,  concern- 
ing the  unutterable,  as  well  as  inconceivable,  mysteries  of 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  three  in  one,  and  one  in 
three,  the  co-essentiality,  the  co-eternity,  and   co-equality 


Chap,  ii.]  A'ECOA'DS   COLLECTED.  2/5 

of  the  three  glorious  Persons  in  one  eternal  God."  "A 
number  in  one  of  our  churches  having  suffered  themselves 
to  inquire  therein,  according  to  aforesaid  rules  of  human 
reason  and  worldly  wisdom,  have  become  so  entangled 
and  confused,  that  they  were  carried  so  far  as  to  question 
the  Sonship  of  the  second  Person,  as  he  is  God,  without 
having  reference  to  his  manhood  and  mediatory  offices ; 
which  conception  and  supposition  we  not  only  disallow, 
but  abhor  and  condemn,  and  are  glad  that  God  hath 
blessed  means  to  convict  the  said  parties  of  their  sin  and 
error ;  and  herein  we  were,  ncniinc  contradiceutc,  fully 
united  to  repel,  and  put  a  stop  to,  as  far  as  we  may,  .  .  . 
the  Arian,  Socinian,  and  Antitrinitarian  systems."  Bap- 
tism by  unbaptized  or  unauthorized  persons  was  again 
and  again  repudiated. 

In  1 746  Benjamin  Griffith  was  appointed  to  "  collect  and 
set  in  order  the  accounts  of  the  several  Baptist  churches  in 
these  provinces,  and  keep  a  record  of  the  proceedings  of 
our  denomination  in  these  provinces."  To  his  labors, 
under  this  commission,  we  are  deeply  indebted.  In  I749 
Griffith  read  before  the  Association  an  essay  on  "The 
Power  and  Duty  of  an  Association  of  Churches."  It 
would  be  difficult  to  find  a  juster  presentation  of  the  sub- 
ject in  Baptist  literature.  The  views  set  forth  are  sub- 
stantially those  of  the  Baptists  of  to-day.  It  was  deter- 
mined in  1753  that  no  person  should  be  ordained  to  the 
ministry  on  the  judgment  of  a  single  church  as  to  his 
fitness,  but  that  a  candidate  for  ordination  should  "  visit 
other  churches,  and  preach  among  them,  and  obtain  from 
those  churches  concurring  evidence  of  their  approbation." 

In  1755  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  appointed,  and 
for  the  following  year  it  was  decided  that  these  exercises 
be  "  continued  quarterly  throughout  the  year,  unless  we 
shall  have  cause  to  turn  our  fasting  into  thanks  and  praise 


276  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  11. 

to  God  for  deliverance  granted."  These  fast-days  were 
kept  up  for  many  years. 

Several  brethren  were  appointed  in  i  755  and  often  after- 
ward to  visit  struggling  Baptist  communities  near  and  far 
in  correspondence  with  the  Association.  This  year  breth- 
ren were  appointed  to  visit  Virginia  and  North  Carolina, 
and  Cape  May. 

It  was  agreed  in  i  756  to  "  raise  a  sum  of  money  towards 
the  encouragement  of  a  Latin  Grammar  School  for  the  pro- 
motion of  learning  amongst  us,  under  the  care  of  Brother 
Isaac  Eaton."  This  school  was  conducted  at  Hopewell, 
N.  J.,  and  proved  highly  serviceable  to  the  denomination. 
Six  years  later  the  Association  wrote  the  London  minis- 
ters, informing  them  of  the  state  of  the  churches  and  sug- 
gesting that  they  do  something  for  the  academy.  "  A  few 
books  proper  for  such  a  school,  or  a  small  apparatus,  or 
some  pieces  of  apparatus,  are  more  immediately  wanted, 
and  not  to  be  had  easily  in  these  parts.  We  have  also,  of 
late,  endeavored  to  form  a  library  at  Philadelphia,  for  the 
use  of  our  brethren  in  the  ministry  who  are  not  able  to 
purchase  books."  From  an  earlier  minute  it  appears  that 
the  nucleus  of  this  library  consisted  of  books  sent  out  by 
Thomas  HoUis,  of  London.  Morgan  Edwards,  who  was  to 
be  the  chief  historian  of  the  churches  of  the  Association, 
was  the  moving  spirit  in  these  literary  and  educational 
endeavors. 

It  is  somewhat  startling  to  find  the  Association,  in 
1762,  granting  a  certificate  to  a  minister  stating  that  he 
has  "  been  admitted  into  holy  orders,  according  to  the 
known  and  approved  rites  of  the  Baptist  Church." 

In  1762,  or  earlier,  members  of  the  Association,  under 
the  inspiration  of  Morgan  Edwards,  began  to  plan  for  the 
establishment  of  a  Baptist  college.  It  was  felt  that  more 
than  anvthiner  else  such  an  institution  would  contribute  to 


CiiAi'.  ]].]  A    BAPTIST  COLLEGE   PROPOSED.  277 

the  dignity  and  strength  of  the  denomination.  A  number 
of  Baptist  young  men  had  been  educated  and  were  being- 
educated  at  Princeton,  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  elsewhere ;  but  it  was  felt  that  an  adequate  number 
of  educated  ministers  would  never  be  secured  until  the  de- 
nomination should  have  an  institution  of  its  own  in  which 
Baptist  principles  should  predominate  and  in  which  de- 
nominational life  should  be  fostered.  It  was  the  opinion 
of  Morgan  Edwards  and  the  brethren  with  whom  he  took 
counsel  that,  all  things  considered,  Rhode  Island  was  the 
most  advantageous  location  for  a  Baptist  college.  It  would 
have  been  impossible  to  secure  a  charter  in  Massachusetts  or 
Connecticut,  and  these  commonwealths  were  already  sup- 
plied with  university  facilities.  The  advantages  of  Rhode 
Island  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Pennsylvania  and 
New  Jersey  brethren  were  probably  the  following:  i.  It 
was  highly  probable  that  a  charter  could  be  readily  se- 
cured in  that  land  of  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  2.  The 
Baptists  of  Rhode  Island  had  grown  up  with  the  country 
and  many  of  them  had  attained  to  wealth  and  high  polit- 
ical and  social  position,  whereas  the  Baptists  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  Jersey  were  poor  and  could  not  have 
contributed  very  largely  toward  the  establishment  of  a 
university;  3.  The  geographical  position  of  Rhode  Island 
was  central  as  regards  the  Baptist  population  of  the  north- 
ern and  middle  colonies.  James  Manning,  who  had  just 
been  graduated  with  high  honors  at  Princeton,  was  selected 
by  these  brethren  of  the  Philadelphia  Association  to  pro- 
ceed to  Rhode  Island,  to  confer  witli  leading  Baptists  there, 
and  to  take  necessary  steps  for  securing  a  charter.  The 
churches  of  the  Association  contributed  liberally,  accord- 
ing to  their  means,  for  the  equipment  and  support  of  the 
college ;  but  the  noblest  contributions  they  made  were  the 
idea  and  the  man. 


278  ^'^/^   BAPTISTS.  [I'KK.  It 

At  about  the  same  time  the  Association  contributed 
another  Princeton  graduate,  Hezekiah  Smith,  to  New  Eng- 
land. The  Warren  Association,  formed  on  the  model  of 
the  Philadelphia,  was  due  to  this  noble  contribution  of  men 
and  to  the  friendly  intercourse  that  was  thus  established. 
The  welding  of  the  new  Baptists  of  New  England  with  the 
old  was  due  to  the  same  influence. 

Earlier  still  (1749)  the  Association  had  contributed  to 
the  Baptist  cause  in  South  Carolina  a  minister  who  was  to 
prove  a  source  of  strength  and  unity  to  the  cause.  Oliver 
Hart  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  principles  of  the 
Baptists  of  the  Association,  and  two  years  after  his  settle- 
ment secured  the  organization  of  the  Charleston  Associa- 
tion, which  was  in  its  purposes  and  its  work  almost  an 
exact  copy  of  the  Philadelphia. 

The  Association  had  a  large  share  in  the  Baptist  work 
of  Virginia.  Men  and  money  were  always  available 
whenever  there  was  an  opportunity  to  advance  the  Baptist 
cause.  The  Ketokton  Association,  Virginia,  was  likewise 
modeled  on  that  of  which  the  churches  composing  it  had 
been  members.  In  1774  it  was  agreed  that  the  churches 
be  recommended  to  contribute  to  a  fund  for  "  brethren 
sufifering  under  ecclesiastical  oppression  in  New  England." 

After  the  formation  of  other  associations  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Philadelphia  Association  to  appoint  and  re- 
ceive fraternal  delegates.  Thus  the  bonds  of  brotherhood 
were  maintained  and  the  unity  of  the  denomination  greatly 
promoted. 

Among  the  ministers  of  the  Philadelphia  Association 
during  this  period  Morgan  Edwards  held  high  rank.  He 
was  born  in  Wales  (1722)  and  educated  at  Bristol  Baptist 
College.  After  nine  years  of  ministerial  service  in  Ireland 
and  one  year  in  PZngland,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Phila- 
delphia  church,   on    the    recommendation   of  Dr.  Gill,  in 


Chap,  ii.]  EDWARDS,  JONES,  AND  MORGAN.  279 

1 76 1.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  only  Baptist  minister 
in  America  who  opposed  the  Revohition.  This  sint^ular- 
ity  no  doubt  interfered  seriously  with  his  popularity  as  a 
minister.  He  gave  up  regular  preaching  in  1771,  and  his 
name  does  not  occur  in  the  minutes  of  the  Association 
from  1776  to  1 791,  although  in  1785  the  churches  were 
recommended  "  to  make  enquiry  among  themselves  .  .  . 
what  number  they  will  respectively  take,  of  an  intended 
publication  of  materials  towards  the  history  of  the  Baptists 
in  New  Jersey."  The  leisure  secured  by  the  intermission 
of  ministerial  labor  he  employed  to  good  account  in  mak- 
ing a  most  painstaking  collection  and  digest  of  the  mate- 
rials of  the  Baptist  history  of  America.  He  visited  Baptist 
communities  from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia  in  the  in- 
terest of  his  history.  He  died  in  1795,  having  retained 
to  the  end  the  fullest  confidence  of  his  brethren. 

The  ablest  and  most  trusted  leader  among  the  ministers 
of  the  Association  during  this  period  was  undoubtedly  Dr. 
Samuel  Jones.  His  parents  had  removed  to  Pennsylvania 
in  1737,  when  he  was  two  years  of  age.  He  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  College  of  Philadelphia  in  1762,  the  same 
year  in  which  Manning  and  Smith  were  graduated  from 
Princeton.  He  possessed  ample  learning,  a  strong  person- 
ality, a  magnificent  physique,  and  practical  wisdom  of  the 
highest  order.  Eloquent  and  amiable,  he  won  the  hearts 
of  all,  and  to  the  close  of  his  long  life  in  18 12  he  was  a 
Nestor  among  his  brethren.  He  had  only  one  pastorate, 
that  of  the  Lower  Dublin  (Pennepek)  church,  which  he 
served  from  1762  till  his  death.  He  preached  the  centen- 
nial associational  sermon,  to  be  hereafter  referred  to. 

Less  equable  and  amiable  than  Dr.  Jones,  but  more 
vigorous  and  energetic,  and  perhaps  equally  effective  dur- 
ing his  time,  was  Abel  Morgan.  Born  at  Welsh  Tract, 
Del.,  in  1713,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Middletown,  N.  J., 


28o  'J'llli   BAPTISTS.  [PilR.  ii. 

church  in  1739  and  served  the  church  till  his  death,  in 
1785.  Dr.  Jones  spoke  of  him  as  "the  incomparable 
Morgan,"  and  Morgan  Edwards  characterized  him  as  "  not 
a  custom  divine,  nor  a  leading-string  divine,  but  a  Bible 
divine."  Much  of  his  time  and  strength  he  devoted  to 
evangelistic  work  outside  his  own  community.  He  en- 
dured hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of  Christ.  When  his 
principles  were  assailed  he  was  not  slow  to  defend  them. 
His  debate  in  1742  with  Samuel  Findley,  afterward  presi- 
dent of  Princeton  College,  did  much  for  the  advancement 
of  the  Baptist  cause  and  was  long  remembered  throughout 
the  region  in  which  it  occurred.  His  argument  was  after- 
ward printed  and  was  considered  by  his  brethren  able  and 
effective. 

In  his  centennial  sermon  (1807)  Dr.  Jones  mentions 
among  the  leading  ministers  of  this  period  Benjamin  Grif- 
fith, already  referred  to  as  the  compiler  of  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  churches  and  as  the  careful  secretary  of  the 
Association,  whom  he  characterizes  as  "  eminent  in  coun- 
cil, and  perhaps  more  so  for  the  use  of  his  pen."  Among 
those  who  labored  during  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  he 
esteems  worthy  of  special  mention  John  Davis,  of  Harford, 
Md.  ;  Robert  Kelsay,  of  Cohansey  ;  P.  P.Vanhorn,  of  Lower 
Dublin  ;  Isaac  Eaton,  of  Hopewell ;  Mr.  Walton,  of  Mor- 
ristown  ;  Isaac  Stelle,  of  Piscataqua ;  Benjamin  Miller,  of 
Scotch  Plains ;  and  John  Gano,  of  New  York.  "  These 
were  burning  and  shining  lights,  especially  the  three  last." 

Just  before  the  close  of  this  period  there  comes  upon 
the  stage  of  action  a  preacher  more  highly  gifted  than  any 
of  those  mentioned,  who  was  to  become  one  of  the  leading 
educators  in  the  early  part  of  the  next  period.  This  was 
William  Staughton.  Born  in  Englar.d,  1770,  and  educated 
at  Bristol  College,  he  came  to  America  in  1793.  After 
laboring  in  South  Carolina  and  New  Jersey,  he  became 


Chap,  ii.]  XEIV   YORK.  28 1 

pastor  (in  1805)  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Philadelphia. 
In  181 1  he  became  pastor  of  the  Sansom  Street  Church,  a 
colony  of  the  First,  where  he  remained  till  182 1,  when 
he  accepted  the  presidency  of  Columbian  College.  While 
in  Philadelphia  he  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  training 
students  for  the  ministry,  and  his  eloquence  and  learning 
gave  him  a  foremost  position  among  the  ministers  of  the 
city.  He  was  to  be  the  first  corresponding  secretary  of 
the  American  Baptist  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

The  original  First  Baptist  Church  of  New  York  had 
become  virtually  extinct  with  the  removal  of  Nicholas 
Eyres  to  Newport  in  1732.  It  was  always  feeble  and  had 
become  involved  in  debt.  Baptist  services  were  resumed 
about  I  745  in  the  house  of  Jeremiah  Dodge,  who  had  re- 
moved to  tliC  city  from  Fishkill,  where  a  church  had  been 
constituted.  Benjamin  Miller,  of  New  Jersey,  visited  New 
York  and  baptized  Joseph  Meeks  soon  afterw^ard ;  and 
these,  with  the  cooperation  of  Robert  North,  of  the  original 
church,  secured  the  services  of  John  Pine,  of  Fishkill.  A 
number  of  the  members  of  the  older  church  were  led  to 
abandon  their  Arminian  views  and  to  join  in  the  services. 
Benjamin  Miller  having  become  pastor  of  the  Scotch 
Plains  church  (N.  J.),  the  Baptists  of  New^  York,  about 
thirteen  in  number,  united  with  that  church  in  1753,  hav- 
ing arranged  that  the  pastor  should  preach  in  the  city 
occasionally  and  administer  the  Supper  quarterly.  Their 
numbers  having  increased,  they  were  constituted  a  church 
in  1762,  with  the  good-will  of  the  church  to  which  they 
had  belonged.  John  Gano,  of  New  Jersey,  had  been  se- 
cured as  pastor.  Under  his  wise  and  vigorous  leadership 
the  church  was  greatly  prospered,  and  before  the  close 
of  this  period  had  taken  its  place  among  the  foremost 
churches  in  the  land.  Gano  served  the  church  for  twenty- 
six  years,  when    failing  health  compelled   him   to  seek  a 


282  THE  BAPTISTS.  [I'kk.  ii. 

milder  climate.  Before  he  entered  upon  his  New  York 
pastorate  he  had  become  widely  known  as  an  evangelist 
under  the  Philadelphia  Association.  Like  Hezekiah  Smith, 
he  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  the  colonial  cause  and  served 
throughout  the  war  as  chaplain.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Benjamin  Foster,  whose  conversion  to  Baptist  views  and 
whose  pastorate  in  Newport  have  already  been  narrated. 

A  strong  Baptist  interest  was  developed  in  Dutchess 
County,  N.  Y.,  from  1745  onward.  The  first  organization 
was  that  at  Fishkill.  The  North-east  church  was  consti- 
tuted in  1751  ;  the  Dover  in  1757;  the  Stanford  in  1759; 
and  the  Warwick  in  I  ']66.  Little  is  known  about  the 
earliest  history  of  the  Fishkill  church.  It  was  probabl}' 
made  up  of  Baptists  from  New  England.  Elder  Halstead 
was  the  first  pastor.  This  church  seems  to  have  become 
extinct  after  a  few  years.  The  North-east  church  was  a 
result  of  the  Great  Awakening.  A  Separate  church  was 
formed  of  members  who  seceded  from  a  Presbyterian 
church,  and  of  these  Separates  many  became  Baptists,  in- 
cluding Simon  Dakin,  the  first  pastor  of  this  Baptist  church. 
The  Dover  church  was  formed  under  like  influences. 
Samuel  Waldo  was  its  first  pastor,  and  through  his  energetic 
efforts  the  Baptist  cause  was  greatly  promoted  throughout 
this  part  of  the  colony.  The  Stanford  church  was  organ- 
ized w^ith  tlie  assistance  and  under  the  influence  of  the  old 
Swansea  church,  to  which  most  of  its  constituent  members 
may  have  previou.sly  belonged.  Ephraim  and  Comer  Bul- 
lock were  early  appointed  to  administer  the  ordinances,  and 
the  latter  long  served  in  the  ministry. 

From  I  763  onward  the  settlement  of  the  vast  and  fertile 
regions  of  northern  and  western  New  York  was  exceed- 
ingly rapid,  a  considerable  degree  of  safety  from  French  and 
Indian  attacks  having  been  secured  by  the  Treaty  0/  Paris. 
Large  numbers  of  New  England  Separates  remo\'ed  to 


Chap,  ii.]  NEW   YORK  ASSOCIATIOX.  283 

these  newly  opened  regions  to  escape  persecution  and  to 
better  their  worldly  position.  Some  came  as  Baptists  and 
many  more  were  led  by  the  logic  of  their  position  into 
the  Baptist  ranks.  In  1773  two  Baptist  families  from 
Warwick,  N.  Y.,  removed  far  into  the  wilderness,  and  set- 
tled on  Butternut  Creek  in  Otsego  County.  Other  families 
followed  them  and  a  church  was  soon  organized.  From 
this  center  Baptist  teaching  radiated  throughout  a  large 
part  of  western  New  York.  It  is  impracticable  to  follow 
the  work  in  its  details. 

A  few  statistics  will  show  that  New  York  proved  one 
of  the  most  fertile  fields  in  which  Baptist  principles  were 
ever  planted.  In  1750  there  were  at  most  three  or  four 
Baptist  organizations  in  the  colony,  some  of  the  older 
churches  having  become  extinct.  In  1770  there  were  7 
small  churches.  By  i  784,  4  churches  had  been  added  and 
the  membership  exceeded  700.  In  1 792  there  were  62 
churches,  with  a  membership  of  about  4000.  By  1812  the 
astonishing  figures  of  239  churches  and  18,499  members 
had  been  reached. 

During  the  early  part  of  this  period  several  of  these 
scattered  churches  connected  themselves  with  the  Phila- 
delphia Association.  In  1791  the  New  York  and  War- 
wick Associations  were  formed;  in  1795,  the  Otsego;  in 
1796,  the  Rensselaerville  ;  in  1801,  the  Cayuga;  in  1802, 
the  Essex  and  Champlain  ;  in  1806,  the  Saratoga;  in  1808, 
the  Madison  and  the  Black  River;  in  18 10,  the  Union;  in 
181 1,  the  Franklin;  in  1812,  the  St.  Lawrence;  and  in 
1 81 3,  the  Ontario.  In  1807  the  Lake  Missionary  Society, 
known  from  1808  as  the  Hamilton  Missionary  Society, 
was  formed  at  Pompey.  A  full  documentary  history  of 
the  New  York  Baptists  is  a  desideratum. 


CHAPTER    III. 

VIRGINIA    AND    NORTH    CAROLINA. 1 

It  will  be  remembered  that  near  the  close  of  the  pre- 
ceding" period  feeble  churches  of  the  General  Baptist  per- 
suasion were  organized  at  Burleigh  and  Surrey.  In  i  743 
a  small  party  of  Maryland  General  Baptists,  of  whom  Ed- 
ward Hays  and  Thomas  Yates  were  the  leaders,  settled  on 
the  Opekon,  in  Frederick  County.  Henry  Loveall,  who 
had  been  their  pastor  in  Maryland,  soon  followed  them. 
The  church  may  have  retained  its  original  organization,  or 
may  have  been  organized  anew.  It  had  come  into  a  dis- 
ordered state  by  1752,  when  it  was  visited,  probably  at 
the  request  of  some  of  its  members,  by  Benjamin  Miller, 
John  Thomas,  and  John  Gano,  ministers  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Association,  who,  according  to  a  MS.  account  used 
by  Semple,  "  new  modeled  the  church,  forming  it  upon 
the  Calvinistic  plan,  sifting  out  the  chaff,  and  retaining  the 
supposed  good  grain."  According  to  Gano's  account, 
"  out  of  the  whole  who  offered  themselves,  there  were 
only  three  received."  These  three  "  were  constituted,  and 
six  more  were  baptized  and  joined  with  them."  "  Some 
openly  declared  they  knew  they  could  not  give  an  account 
of  experiencing  a  work  of  grace,  and  therefore  need  not 
offer  themselves."      Some  sous^ht  to  be  further  instructed 


1  Cf.  Semple;  Howell;  Curry;  Hening,  "Statutes  at  Large";  Hawks, 
"  Contr.  to  Ecc.  Hist."  ;  Taylor ;  Foote,  "Sketches  of  Virg." ;  Asplund; 
Read  and  Burkitt ;   and  Rij^pon. 

284 


Chap,  hi.]  VIRGINIA.  285 

and  "  afterwards  professed  and  became  zealous  members." 
The  new-modeled  church  had  for  its  pastor  in  1754  Sam- 
uel Heaton,  who,  "  driven  from  his  possessions  by  the 
Indians,"  returned  to  Pennsylvania  by  1656  and  was  for 
many  years  (1761  onward)  pastor  of  the  Dividing  Creek 
church,  New  Jersey.  His  place  was  taken  by  John  Gar- 
rard, probably  the  same  as  John  Jaret,  whom  brethren 
appointed  by  the  Association  in  1755  to  visit  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  had  been  authorized  to  ordain.  The  name 
of  John  Garret  appears  In  the  minutes  of  the  Association 
in  1755  and  1758,  and  from  1761  onward  as  pastor  of  the 
Opekon,  Va.,  church. 

The  Ketokton  church,  in  Loudon  County,  was  the  next 
to  be  constituted.  The  date  of  the  organization,  which 
Semple  is  inclined  to  put  in  1756,  was,  according  to  the 
minutes  of  the  Philadelphia  Association,  October  8,  1751. 
According  to  the  latter  authority  the  first  pastor  of  this 
church  was  John  Thomas,  probably  a  missionary  of  the 
Association,  who  shortly  afterward  returned  to  Peimsyl- 
vania,  where  he  died  in  1791,  aged  seventy-nine.  Semple 
seems  to  be  in  error  in  making  Garrard  the  first  pastor  of 
this  church.  The  Opekon  and  the  Ketokton  churches 
were  received  into  the  Philadelphia  Association  in  1754. 
A  third  church  was  formed  at  Smith's  Creek,  Frederick 
County,  in  August,  1756,  under  the  ministry  of  John 
Alderson,  a  missionary  of  the  Philadelphia  Association. 
A  number  of  Baptists  from  the  North  had  settled  there 
about  eleven  years  before,  and  these  had  been  visited  in 
the  mean  time  by  Samuel  Eaton  (Heaton),  Benjamin 
Griffith,  and  John  Gano,  of  the  Philadelphia  Association. 
This  church  united  with  the  Association  in  1762.  These 
three  churches  began  holding  yearly  meetings  in  1757,  it 
being  impossible  for  any  considerable  number  to  partici- 
pate in  the  meetings  of  the  Philadelphia  Association. 


286  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

The  visit  of  Siuibael  Steams  and  Daniel  Marsliall,  Sep- 
arate Baptists  from  New  England,  in  1754,  produced  a 
strong  impression  on  many  of  the  Baptists  of  the  old  order. 
Those  who  disapproved  of  the  enthusiasm  introduced  ir^^o 
the  meetings  through  this  influence  asked  the  Association 
to  investigate  the  matter.  Benjamin  Miller  was  sent,  and 
was  so  pleased  with  the  zeal  complained  of  as  to  say,  that 
if  he  had  such  warm-hearted  Christians  in  his  church  he 
would  not  take  gold  for  them.  A  revival  followed,  result- 
ing in  many  conversions.  The  pastor  of  the  Ketokton 
church  for  a  number  of  years,  beginning  some  time  before 
1 76 1,  was  John  Marks,  of  whom  little  further  is  known. 
Garrard  and  Alderson  labored  in  this  region  for  many 
years  with  great  fidelity  and  success  as  pastors  and  evan- 
gelists;  and  to  them  a  number  of  churches  owe  their 
origin. 

About  1762  a  church  was  organized  at  Broad  Run  in 
Fauquier  County  under  the  ministry  of  David  Thomas, 
who  had  been  "admitted  into  holy  orders"  in  the  Phila- 
delphia Association,  as  attested  in  the  certificate  of  the 
Association,  dated  October  13,  1762,  and  signed  by  Mor- 
gan Edwards.  While  visiting  the  older  Baptist  commu- 
nities he  met  two  men  who  had,  without  special  human 
agency,  come  to  feel  their  need  of  gospel  privileges,  and 
who  had  made  a  journey  of  sixty  miles  to  secure  the  help 
of  the  Baptists.  Thomas  was  prevailed  upon  to  visit  their 
community.  The  result  of  his  visit  was  a  religious  awak- 
ening and  the  organization  of  a  church.  Thomas  was  a 
man  of  rare  evangelistic  gifts.  He  labored  over  an  ex- 
tensive territory  and  was  instrumental  in  the  conversion 
of  multitudes  who  had  never  before  heard  evangelical 
preaching.  Through  the  labors  of  Thomas  and  Garrard, 
who  often  traveled  together.  Baptist  principles  were  planted 
throughout  all  the  upper  counties  of  the  Northern  Neck. 


Chap,  hi.]  THE  KETOKTON  ASS0CE4TI0N.  287 

These  Regular  Baptists  were  opposed  with  less  violence 
than  might  have  been  expected.  The  Episcopal  ministers, 
as  historians  of  their  own  persuasion  freely  admit,  were 
for  the  most  part  irreligious  and  immoral,  and  lived  in 
idleness  and  pleasure  at  the  public  expense.  The  people 
were  almost  entirely  neglected  and  had  in  turn  lost  con- 
fidence in  those  who  were  theoretically  their  spiritual 
guides.  There  was  among  the  people  a  hungering  and 
thirsting  for  the  living  word.  Many  traveled  great  dis- 
tances to  hear  evangelical  preaching  and  importuned  the 
preachers  to  visit  their  destitute  communities.  Thus 
evangelical  teaching  extended  from  one  community  to 
another.  Among  the  most  noted  ministers  raised  up 
under  the  preaching  of  Thomas  and  Garrard  were  Daniel 
and  William  Fristoe  and  James  Ireland.  Daniel  Fristoe, 
though  unlearned,  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  preachers 
of  the  time.  The  influence  of  a  sermon  of  his  on  Presi- 
dent Manning  has  been  referred  to  in  an  earlier  chapter. 

The  Ketokton  Association  was  formed  in  1766,  with 
the  hearty  approval  and  cooperation  of  the  Philadelphia, 
of  the  four  churches  already  mentioned.  By  the  close  of 
this  period  it  embraced  thirty-six  churches,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  more  than  two  thousand. 

The  Baptist  work  in  the  territory  covered  by  the  Ketok- 
ton Association  was  accomplished,  as  has  been  seen,  under 
the  directing  and  fostering  care  of  the  Philadelphia  Asso- 
ciation and  partook  of  the  character  of  that  body.  Both 
had  felt  the  influence  of  the  great  revival  and  of  the  Sep- 
arate Baptist  movement  without  fully  identifying  them- 
selves therewith.  The  Ketokton  Association  adopted  the 
Philadelphia  recension  of  the  London  Confession  of  Faith 
of  1689,  with  the  articles  on  communion -and  the  imposi- 
tion of  hands.  The  latter  was  rigorously  practiced  and 
insisted  on  for  more  than  twenty  years.      After  the  great 


288  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ll. 

revival  of  i  785-87  and  the  union  of  Regulars  and  Separates 
in  1787,  "  first  the  necessity,  and  then  the  propriety  of  it, 
began  to  be  questioned,  until  it  was  finally  disused ;  and 
in  the  revisal  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  that  article  was 
expunged"  (Semple). 

The  practical  wisdom  of  the  Association  was  distinctly 
inferior  to  that  of  the  Philadelphia.  There  was  lacking 
that  patient  and  persistent  effort  to  allay  strife  and  prevent 
schism  that  constituted  the  strength  of  the  mother  Asso- 
ciation. The  question  was  raised  at  one  of  the  sessions 
whether  one's  refusal  to  bear  his  proportion  of  the  ex- 
penses of  the  church,  according  to  his  property,  should  be 
a  matter  of  discipline.  It  was  determined  that  a  church 
might  properly  tax  each  member  according  to  his  ability 
and  exclude  him  in  case  he  refused  to  submit.  Some  of 
the  churches,  to  their  sorrow,  attempted  to  act  on  this 
advice.  In  1787  the  question  of  slavery  was  introduced. 
It  was  determined  that  hereditary  slavery  is  a  breach  of 
the  divine  law.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  bring  in 
a  plan  for  gradual  emancipation.  This  excited  such  a  tu- 
mult in  the  churches  that  the  Association  felt  constrained 
to  resolve  to  take  no  further  steps  in  this  business.  The 
repudiation  of  what  has  been  called  "  alien  immersion  " 
was  more  pronounced  here  than  in  the  Philadelphia  Asso- 
ciation. Much  commotion  was  raised  in  1791  by  the 
dealing  of  the  Association  with  James  Hutchinson  and  a 
church  he  had  gathered  and  baptized.  Hutchinson  had 
been  converted  among  the  Methodists  and  immersed  by  a 
Methodist  preacher.  He  began  his  ministry  in  Georgia, 
and  after  carefully  considering  his  case  the  Georgia  Bap- 
tists had  accepted  his  baptism  and  recognized  him  as  a 
minister.  While  visiting  relatives  in  Virginia  a  large  num- 
ber were  converted  through  his  preaching  and  were  by  him 
baptized  and  organized  into  a  church.      The  attention  of 


Chap,  hi.]  GEXERAL   BAPTIST  CHURCHES.  289 

the  Association  having  been  called  to  the  fact  that  Hutch- 
inson had  been  baptized  by  a  Methodist,  it  was  determined 
that  neither  pastor  nor  church  could  be  received  into  the 
Association  unless  they  would  submit  to  be  rebaptized. 
Fortunately  for  the  peace  of  the  Association,  they  accepted 
these  terms. 

At  the  close  of  the  last  period,  it  will  be  recalled,  two 
small  General  Baptist  churches  had  been  organized  in 
Virginia,  the  one  in  Isle  of  Wight  Count}-,  the  other  in 
Surrey,  and  were  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Richard  Jones 
and  Caspar  Mintz.  A  number  of  General  Baptists  had 
removed  from  Virginia  to  North  Carolina,  where,  under 
the  leadership  of  Paul  Palmer,  a  church  was  constituted. 
About  I  740  William  Sojourner,  a  member  of  the  Burleigh 
church,  removed  to  North  Carolina  and  gathered  another 
General  Baptist  church.  Through  the  labors  of  Palmer, 
Sojourner,  and  Joseph  Parker,  a  number  of  churches  were 
constituted  during  the  early  years  of  the  present  period. 
In  December,  i  756,  the  church  at  Burleigh  sent  the  follow- 
ing letter  to  the  Philadelphia  Association  :  "  The  church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  in  Isle  of  Wight  County,  holding  adult 
baptism,  etc.,  to  the  Reverend  and  General  Assembly  or 
Association  at  Philadelphia,  send  greeting :  We,  the  above- 
mentioned  church,  confess  ourselves  to  be  under  clouds  of 
darkness  concerning  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  not  knowing 
whether  we  are  on  the  right  foundation,  and  the  church 
much  unsettled:  wherefore  we  desire  alliance  with  you, 
and  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  send  us  helps  to  settle  the 
church,  and  rectify  what  may  be  wrong."  The  letter  is 
subscribed  by  Caspar  Mintz,  Richard  Jones,  and  eleven 
others.  It  is  probable  that  the  church  was  visited  by 
Gano,  Vanhorn,  and  Miller,  who  about  this  time  were  fre- 
quently in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  These  ministers 
of  the   Philadelphia  Association  were  for  the   most  part 


290  THE  BArriSTS.  [Pkk.  ii 

cordially  received,  and  they  presented  the  truth  with  such 
fervor  and  power  that  large  numbers  abandoned  their  Ar- 
minianism.  Where  such  were  sufficiently  numerous  they 
were  organized  into  churches.  The  work  was  continued 
after  the  departure  of  these  brethren.  A  few  persisted  in 
Arminianism. 

In  I  765  these  churches  formed  the  Kehukee  Association. 
Several  of  the  North  Carolina  churches  composing  this 
Association  had  in  1758  and  1760  united  with  the  Charles- 
ton Association.^  The  Charleston  Association  arranged 
for  an  annual  meeting  of  ministers  for  the  churches  of 
North  Carolina  and  the  northern  part  of  South  Carolina 
about  1758.  The  Baptist  cause  greatly  prospered  in  the 
regions  covered  by  this  Association.  By  1 790  it  em- 
braced sixty-one  churches,  with  more  than  five  thou- 
sand members.  In  that  year  it  was  divided,  the  Virginia 
churches  forming  the  Portsmouth  Association. 

The  peculiarities  of  the  General  Baptist  churches  out  of 
which  this  great  Baptist  community  grew  were  Arminian 
doctrine  and  culpable  laxity  in  receiving  members  and  in 
exercising  discipline.  It  w^as  said  that  Palmer  and  his 
associates  required  no  profession  of  a  change  of  heart  on 
the  part  of  candidates  for  baptism.  When  awakened  by 
the  searching  preaching  of  men  like  Gano,  Vanhorn,  and 
Miller,  a  large  proportion  of  the  members  felt  that  now 
for  the  first  time  they  understood  what  conversion  meant. 
In  passing  over  from  the  General  to  the  Regular  Baptist 
position  some  of  the  churches  had  failed  to  eliminate  those 
who  were  unable  to  make  a  profession  of  conversion.  It 
was  thought  that,  due  care  being  exercised  in  the  future 
reception    of   members,   the    unconverted   element   would 

1  Wood  Furnian,  "  History  of  the  Charleston  Association,"  gives  these 
dates  in  his  narrative  (p.  13),  but  in  his  statistical  table  (p.  55)  he  gives  1755 
to  1759  as  the  dates  of  admission. 


Chap.  111.]  THE  KEIIUKEE  ASSOCIATIOX.  29 1 

soon  disappear  through  conversion  or  death.  The  Sepa- 
rate Baptists  having  become  numerous  and  noted  for  their 
piety  and  zeal  in  this  part  of  Virginia,  advances  were  made 
by  the  Kehukee  Association  in  1772  pointing  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  communion  between  the  two  bodies.  The 
Separates  objected  on  the  ground  that  the  churches  of  the 
Association  were  not  sufficiently  strict  in  receiving  mem- 
bers, were  "  too  superfluous  "  in  their  dress,  and  retained 
many  members  who  acknowledged  themselves  to  have 
been  baptized  in  a  state  of  unbelief.  This  rebuff  led 
the  more  zealous  members  of  the  Association  to  attempt 
a  reformation.  A  meeting  was  held  in  Elder  Burkitt's 
church  (1774),  in  which  it  was  resolved  not  to  hold  com- 
munion with  any  who  confessed  that  they  were  baptized 
before  their  conversion.  The  meeting  of  the  As.sociation 
the  next  year  was  a  stormy  one.  Each  party  claimed  to 
be  the  Association.  The  reformers  were  finally  victorious 
and  gained  as  much  by  accessions  of  Separate  churches 
as  they  lost  by  the  defection  of  the  lax  party. 

In  1789  those  churches  that  had  withdrawn  in  1775  on 
account  of  the  determination  of  the  majority  to  insist  on 
converted  membership  were  received  back  into  fellowship, 
the  diffi  Ities  that  formerly  existed  having  been  removed. 
The  chief  mover  in  the  reformation  of  1774  onward  was 
Lemuel  Burkitt. 

This  Association  was  greatly  concerned,  as  has  been 
seen,  for  the  union  of  the  Regulars  and  Separates,  and  was 
largely  instrumental  in  bringing  about  this  happy  event. 
The  decisions  of  questions  of  doctrine  and  polity  are  in 
accord  with  the  strictest  Baptist  principles,  but  for  the 
most  part  display  a  spirit  of  moderation.  The  brief  con- 
fession of  faith  adopted  by  the  Association  in  1777  was 
designed  to  meet  the  objections  of  the  Separates,  who 
would  have  refused  the  Philadelphia  Confession,  and  yet 


292  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

to  exclude  churches  that  were  lax  in  receiving  members 
and  e\'ery  form  of  Arminianism.  The  Association  was 
alive  to  the  importance  of  church  extension  and  sustained 
itinerant  preaching.  Baptism  by  unauthorized  persons 
was  declared  to  be  irregular  and  undesirable,  but  not  in- 
valid. Freemasonry  was  regarded  as  inconsistent  with 
church-membership.  The  support  of  pastors  and  itinerant 
preachers  was  again  and  again  insisted  on  as  a  requirement 
of  the  gospel. 

The  third  great  Baptist  movement  in  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  and  in  some  respects  the  most  important, 
is  that  introduced  from  New  England  through  the  Sepa- 
rate Baptist  evangelists,  Shubael  Stearns  and  Daniel  Mar- 
shall. Stearns  was  a  native  of  Boston  (born  i  706).  He 
was  converted  in  connection  with  the  great  revival,  and, 
like  many  other  Separates,  adopted  antipedobaptist  views. 
He  was  baptized  by  Wait  Palmer  at  Toland,  Conn.,  in 
I  75  I,  and  was  soon  afterward  ordained.  Filled  with  zeal 
for  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  he  made  his  way  southward 
in  1754-  He  stopped  for  a  while  in  Virginia  and  had 
some  conference  with  the  Baptists  of  Opekon.  Here  he 
met  Daniel  Marshall,  his  brother-in-law,  who  had  just 
been  engaged  in  a  mission  to  the  Mohawk  Indians  at  the 
head  of  the  Susquehanna.  Marshall  was  born  in  Connecti- 
cut in  I  706  and  had  likewise  been  converted  in  the  great 
revival.  He  had  heard  Whitefield  preach  and  had  caught 
his  enthusiasm.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  that  he  had  been 
well-nigh  carried  off  his  balance  by  his  expectation  of  the 
near  approach  of  the  latter-day  glory,  and  was  of  those 
who  with  almost  fanatical  zeal  sold,  gave  away,  or  aban- 
doned their  possessions  and  without  scrip  or  purse  rushed 
away  to  convert  the  heathen  and  thus  hasten  the  glorious 
appearing  of  Christ.  In  the  words  of  his  son,  "  he  ex- 
changed his  commodious  buildings  for  a  miserable  hut ; 


Chap,  iii.]  MARSHALL   AND   STlLiKNS.  293 

his  fruitful  fields  and  loaded  orchards  for  barren  deserts ; 
the  luxuries  of  a  well-furnished  table  for  coarse  and  scanty 
fare  ;  and  numerous  civil  friends  for  rude  savages."  Driven 
away  by  Indian  wars  after  a  year  and  a  half  of  earnest 
efifort,  he  made  his  way  to  Virginia.  Here  he  came  in 
contact  with  the  Baptist  work  that  was  being  carried  on 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Philadelphia  Association.  He 
and  his  wife  were  led  to  examine  the  Baptist  faith  and 
were  soon  convinced  that  believers'  baptism  alone  had 
Scriptural  warrant.  They  were  baptized  and  he  was  li- 
censed to  preach.  His  later  career  was  truly  apostolic  in 
its  spirit  and  results.  Though  ill  educated,  by  no  means 
brilliantly  endowed,  and  already  forty-eight  years  of  age, 
he  was  to  be  instrumental,  during  the  thirty  years  of  life 
that  remained  to  him,  in  the  conversion  of  multitudes  and 
in  planting  Baptist  churches  in  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  and  Georgia. 

Stearns  was  more  highly  gifted  and  equally  zealous. 
After  laboring  for  some  months  in  Virginia  without  such 
success  as  he  craved,  he  removed  to  Guilford  County, 
N.  C,  where  he  found  a  people  almost  destitute  of  religious 
privileges,  but  ready  to  listen  to  the  earnest  proclamation 
of  the  truth.  The  Separate  Baptists  from  New  England 
brought  with  them  the  eccentricities  of  manner  that  charac- 
terized the  New  Light  movement.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
any  evangelist  but  Whitefield  surpassed  Stearns  in  mag- 
netic power  over  audiences.  His  tones  were  peculiarly 
impressive  and  capti\-ating,  and  his  eyes  seem  to  have  had 
almost  magical  power  over  those  upon  whom  they  were 
fixed.  Trembling,  weeping,  screaming,  and  catalepsy  were 
common  effects  of  his  highl\-  impassioned  exhortations. 

The  number  of  Baptists  in  Stearns's  company,  including 
Daniel  Marshall  and  his  wife,  was  sixteen.  They  at  once 
organized   themselves  as  a  church   and  began  aggressive 


294  '^'^^^  BAPriSTS.  [Per.  ii. 

work  in  the  community.  In  a  few  years  the  Sandy  Creek- 
church  had  increased  to  606.  Marshall  soon  gathered  a 
church  at  Abbott's  Creek,  about  thirty  miles  distant.  Dif- 
ficulty was  experienced  in  finding  a  minister  willing  to  co- 
operate with  Stearns  in  ordaining  him.  The  pastor  of  a 
church  on  the  Peedee  River,  S.  C,  was  requested  to  serve, 
but  refused  on  the  ground  that  the  Separates  allowed 
women  to  pray  in  public  and  illiterate  men  to  preach,  and 
encouraged  noise  and  confusion  in  their  meetings.  It  may 
be  here  remarked  that  Mrs.  Marshall  was  noted  for  her 
zeal  and  eloquence,  and  that  she  added  greatly  to  the  in- 
terest of  meetings  conducted  by  her  husband.  The  serv- 
ices of  Elder  Ledbetter,  another  brother-in-law  of  Mar- 
shall, laboring  at  that  time  in  South  Carolina,  were  finally 
secured  and  the  ordination  was  accomplished.  A  church 
organized  at  Little  River,  N.  C,  in  1760,  with  a  member- 
ship of  five,  increased  in  three  years  to  five  hundred.  A 
number  of  zealous  preachers  were  soon  raised  up,  and  the 
work  spread  with  such  rapidity  that  by  1775  the  Sandy 
Creek  church,  to  use  the  language  of  Morgan  Edwards, 
who  at  that  time  traversed  the  field  for  the  collection  of 
historical  materials,  "  had  spread  her  branches  southward 
as  far  as  Georgia;  eastward,  to  the  sea  and  Chesapeake 
Bay  ;  and  northward,  to  the  waters  of  the  Potomac.  It, 
in  seventeen  years,  became  mother,  grandmother,  and 
great-grandmother,  to  42  churches,  from  which  sprung 
125  ministers,  many  of  whom  are  ordained,  and  support 
the  sacred  character  as  well  as  any  set  of  clergy  in 
America." 

Marshall  early  extended  his  labors  into  the  adjacent 
parts  of  Virginia.  Among  his  converts  was  Button  Lane 
(1758),  who  became  at  once  a  most  effective  preacher. 
Forty-two  persons  converted  through  his  efforts  were 
baptized  by  Marshall,  and  in   1760  a  church  was  consti- 


Chai'.  111.]  SAXnV  CREEK  ASSOCIATION.  295 

tilted  with  Lane  as  pastor.  This  was  the  first  Separate 
Baptist  church  in  Virginia.  Shortly  after  Lane's  conver- 
sion the  ministry  of  "the  Murphy  boys"  was  blessed  to 
the  conversion  of  a  man  who  was  to  be  the  apostle  of  the 
Virginia  Baptists.  This  was  Colonel  Samuel  Harris,  one 
of  the  most  popular  public  men  of  his  county.  In  the 
performance  of  his  military  duties  he  chanced  to  see  a 
number  of  people  gathering.  Having  been  informed  of 
the  nature  of  the  meeting  he  w^as  led  by  curiosity  to  dis- 
mount and  enter.  He  was  profoundly  impressed,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  service  his  military  accouterments  w^ere 
found  scattered  around.  He  soon  afterward  found  peace 
in  believing,  and  casting  aside  his  worldly  honors  he  began 
preaching  w^ith  w^onderful  power.  Marshall  soon  afterward 
directed  his  way  southward  and  left  the  Virginia  work 
largely  in  Harris's  hands.  A  number  of  churches  having 
been  gathered  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  by  1757, 
Stearns  visited  them  all  and  induced  them  to  send  dele- 
gates to  his  meeting-house  for  the  purpose  of  organizing 
an  Association.  Delegates  met  in  January,  1758,  and  ad- 
journed to  July.  "  We  continued  together  three  or  four 
days,"  wrote  one  of  the  participants.  "  Great  crowds  of 
people  attended,  mostly  through  curiosity.  The  great 
power  of  God  w^as  among  us.  The  preaching  every  day 
seemed  to  be  attended  with  God's  blessing.  We  carried 
on  our  association  with  sweet  decorum  and  fellow^ship  to 
the  end.  Then  we  took  leave  of  one  another,  with  many 
solemn  charges  from  our  reverend  old  father,  Shubael 
Stearns,  to  stand  fast  unto  the  end." 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Association  was  largely  at- 
tended. John  Gano,  of  the  Philadelphia  Association,  was 
present  to  inquire  into  the  great  work  that  was  going  on 
and  to  assist  with  counsel.  Stearns  received  him  cordially, 
but  most  of  the  ministers  viewed  him  with  suspicion  and 


296  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'l.k.  11. 

refused  to  invite  him  to  participate  in  the  meeting".  Yet 
he  was  in\ited  to  preach,  which  he  cHd  to  the  deHgiit  and 
astonishment  of  the  ministers,  some  of  whom  feh  as  if  they 
could  ne\-er  preach  again  after  hearing  such  eloquence. 
Gano  was  able  to  report  that  "  doubtless  the  power  of 
God  was  among  them.  That  although  they  were  rather 
immethodical,  they  certainl}^  had  the  root  of  the  matter  at 
heart." 

In  1767  a  collision  occurred  in  evangelistic  work  be- 
tween the  Separate  Baptists  and  those  of  the  Ketokton 
Association.  The  Regulars  were  first  on  the  field  with 
their  zealous  preachers,  Garrard  and  Thomas.  Harris  and 
Read  were  led  by  divine  guidance,  as  they  supposed,  into 
this  region,  and  were  preaching"  with  wonderful  results. 
The  Regulars  were  anxious  to  alia}'  any  ill  feeling  that 
might  hax'e  arisen  and  to  secure  such  a  union  with  the 
Separates  as  would  insure  harmony  of  action.  In  i  769 
the  Ketokton  Association  sent  three  messengers  to  the 
Association  of  the  Separates  with  an  earnest  plea  for 
peace.  "  If  we  are  all  Christians,  all  Baptists,  all  New 
Lights,  why  are  we  dix'ided?"  they  asked.  "Must  the 
little  appellative  names,  Regular  and  Separate,  break  the 
golden  band  of  charity,  and  set  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
Zion  at  variance?  .  .  .  To  indulge  ourselves  in  prejudice, 
is  surely  a  disorder;  and  to  quarrel  about  nothing,  is  ir- 
regularity with  a  witness.  Our  dear  brethren,  endeavor 
to  prevent  this  calamity  for  the  future."  The  matter  was 
much  discussed,  but  the  Association  rejected  the  overtures 
by  a  small  majority. 

The  progress  of  the  Separate  Baptist  movement  from 
176010  1770  was  almost  unexampled  in  Baptist  history. 
Under  such  evangelists  as  Samuel  Harris  and  John  Waller 
whole  communities  were  stirred  to  their  depths  and  strong 
Baptist  churches  were  established  where  the  Baptist  name 


Ca.U'.  111. J  THE  ASSOCIATIOX  DISSOU'ED.  297 

had  scarcely  been  heard  of  a  short  time  before.  In  South 
Carohna  as  well  as  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  tlie 
evangelists  had  found  fruitful  soil.  The  Association  had 
come  to  be  inconveniently  large  as  regards  territory  and 
the  number  of  churches  embraced.  Stearns,  who  had 
been  the  chief  organizer  of  the  work  of  the  Association, 
laid  more  stress  upon  a  vigorous  connectional  life  than 
upon  the  independence  of  the  churches.  As  his  methods 
of  work  had  much  in  common  with  those  of  the  early 
Methodists,  so  his  idea  of  the  interdependence  of  the 
churches  was  Methodist  rather  than  Baptist.  According 
to  Morgan  Edwards,  whose  information  was  direct,  the 
Association  "  carried  matters  so  high  as  to  unfellowship 
ordinations,  ministers,  and  churches  that  acted  independ- 
ent of  them."  The  theory  was  that  "though  complete 
power  be  in  every  church,  yet  every  church  can  transfer 
it  to  an  Association."  The  spirit  of  independence  had 
become  so  much  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  Baptist  system 
that  such  interference  with  the  autonomy  of  the  churches 
was  sure  to  be  resented.  The  Association,  under  the  in- 
spiration of  Shubael  Stearns,  had  made  unanimity  essen- 
tial to  any  Associational  action.  At  the  Associational 
meeting  of  1770  proceedings  were  blocked  from  the  very 
beginning.  A  unanimous  vote  for  moderator  could  not 
be  secured.  The  next  day  was  devoted  to  fasting  and 
prayer,  but  at  the  close  of  the  day  unanimity  had  been 
reached  in  nothing.  The  following  day  was  spent  in  the 
same  way  until  three  o'clock,  when  a  proposal  to  divide 
the  Association  into  three  parts,  one  for  each  State  repre- 
sented, was  unanimously  adopted.  The  North  Carolina 
division  retained  the  name  Sandy  Creek,  the  South  Caro- 
lina division  adopted  the  name  Congaree,  and  the  Virginia 
division  the  name  Rapid-ann.  The  last  soon  came  to  be 
known  as  the  General  Association  of  Separate  Baptists. 


298  THE  BAPTISTS.  [I'er.  ii. 

The  difficulties  that  had  brought  about  the  dissolution 
of  the  old  Association  seem  to  have  been  completely  re- 
moved by  the  division.  The  churches  continued  to  mul- 
tiply and  the  membership  to  increase.  The  number  of 
members  reported  in  the  Virginia  division  at  the  first 
meeting  in  1771  was  1335,  with  two  churches  not  heard 
from.  In  May,  1773,  3195  members  were  reported,  of 
whom  526  had  been  baptized  since  September,  1772. 
Associational  meetings  were  held  twice  each  year  and 
were  largely  attended.  In  September,  1773,  the  Associa- 
tion was  again  divided ;  but  the  necessity  of  co5peration 
in  striving  against  ecclesiastical  oppression,  and  the  dimin- 
ished interest  taken  in  the  smaller  gatherings,  caused  a 
reunion  a  few  years  later. 

Difficulties  in  relation  to  doctrine  and  polity  early  arose 
in  the  Virginia  Separate  body.  In  1774  a  query  was 
raised:  "Ought  all  the  ministerial  gifts  recorded  in  the 
4th  of  Ephesians,  nth,  12th,  and  13th  verses,  to  be  in  use 
at  the  present  time?"  A  majority  favored  the  affirma- 
tive, while  paying  a  due  regard  to  the  distinction  between 
ordinary  and  extraordinary  gifts.  The  question  was  brought 
up  again  at  a  subsequent  meeting,  when  it  was  decided  al- 
most unanimously  (the  three  opponents  finally  concurring) 
"  that  the  said  offices  are  now  in  use  in  Christ's  church." 
It  was  further  resolved  "that  the  said  offices  be  imme- 
diately established,  by  the  appointment  of  certain  per- 
sons to  fill  them."  Samuel  Harris  was  chosen  apostle  by 
unanimous  consent.  Provision  was  made  for  the  dis- 
ciplining of  the  apostle  in  case  he  should  tran.sgress,  by 
the  church  offended,  with  the  help  of  two  or  three  neigh- 
boring churches,  final  action  to  be  left  to  a  general  confer- 
ence of  the  churches.  Harris  was  solemnly  ordained  to 
the  apostolate,  John  Waller,  E.  Craig,  and  John  Williams 
taking  the  leading  part,  and  the  whole  Association  giving 


Chap,  hi.]  ARMIXIAXISM.  299 

the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  The  ordination  of  Harris 
was  for  the  southern  district  of  the  Association.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  Association  for  the  northern  district  in  the 
following  autumn,  John  Waller  and  Elijah  Craig  were 
likewise  constituted  apostles.  In  this  effort  to  restore  the 
apostolate  we  see  another  e\'idence  of  the  close  relation- 
ship of  the  Separate  Baptist  movement  to  the  Methodist. 
The  apostolate  was  simply  episcopacy  or  general  superin- 
tendency  under  another  name. 

Still  another  indication  of  the  influence  of  Methodism, 
now  a  well-organized  and  aggressive  movement  in  these 
parts,  was  the  adoption  of  Arminian  views  by  some  of  the 
most  trusted  leaders  of  the  connection.  In  1775  it  was 
queried :  "  Is  salvation  by  Christ  made  possible  for  every 
individual  of  the  human  race?"  Two  of  the  apostles  and 
Jeremiah  Walker,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  eloquent  of 
the  ministers,  took  the  affirmative  side,  while  the  other 
apostle,  William  Murphy,  and  John  Williams  earnestly 
argued  for  particular  redemption.  A  small  majority  de- 
cided in  favor  of  the  Calvinistic  position,  although  the 
Arminian  side  had  the  abler  supporters.  The  result  was 
that  Harris,  Waller,  and  Walker  withdrew.  Williams  was 
chosen  moderator  in  place  of  Harris,  who  had  vacated  the 
chair.  It  looked  as  if  the  connection  was  to  be  hopelessly 
shattered.  Fortunately  the  spirit  of  brotherly  love  was 
stronger  than  the  .spirit  of  partisanship.  The  Arminian 
part}^,  after  taking  counsel  together,  addressed  the  follow- 
ing conciliatory  letter  to  the  party  in  the  majority,  signed 
by  Samuel  Harris  as  moderator:  "Dear  Brethren:  A 
steady  union  with  you  makes  us  willing  to  be  more  ex- 
plicit, in  our  answer  to  your  terms  of  reconciliation  pro- 
posed. We  do  not  deny  the  former  part  of  your  proposal, 
respecting  particular  election  of  grace,  still  retaining  our 
liberty,  with  regard  to  construction.      And  as  to  the  latter 


300  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

l)art,  respecting  merit  in  the  creature,  we  are  free  to  pro- 
fess there  is  none."  The  Calvinistic  party,  who  had  made 
overtures  to  the  Arminians  that  called  forth  the  above 
letter,  received  it  in  the  same  conciliatory  spirit.  Their  re- 
ply, signed  by  John  Williams,  moderator,  was  as  follows: 
"Dear  Brethren:  Inasmuch  as  a  continuation  of  your 
Christian  fellowship  seems  nearly  as  dear  to  us  as  our 
lives,  and  seeing  our  difllculties  concerning  your  princi- 
ples, with  respect  to  merit  in  the  creature,  particular  elec- 
tion, and  final  perseverance  of  the  saints,  are  in  a  hopeful 
measure  removing,  we  do  willingly  retain  you  in  fellow- 
ship, not  raising  the  least  bar.  But  do  heartil}'  wish  and 
l^ray,  that  God  in  his  kind  providence,  in  his  own  time,  will 
bring  it  about,  when  Israel  shall  be  of  one  mind,  speaking 
the  same  things."  The  reconciliation  was  a  most  happy 
one,  and  discord  which  might  have  proved  disastrous  was 
averted. 

A  period  of  marked  spiritual  depression  began  at  about 
this  time.  The  political  troubles  that  were  to  result  in  the 
war  of  independence  absorbed  a  large  share  of  attention. 
The  Baptists  of  Virginia  and  the  entire  South  entered  into 
the  struggle  for  civil  liberty  with  the  utmost  decision  and 
zeal,  believing  that  civil  liberty  was  a  condition  of  religious 
liberty.  They  availed  themselves  of  the  popular  enthusi- 
asm for  civil  liberty  to  secure  for  themselves  and  for  all 
that  liberty  of  conscience  for  which  Baptists  have  so  per- 
sistently contended.  The  history  of  the  struggle  of  the 
Virginia  Baptists  for  civil  and  religious  liberty,  in  which 
the  Separate  Baptists  took  the  leading  part,  must  be  re- 
served for  another  chapter. 

Up  to  1 783  the  General  Association  of  the  Separate 
Baptists  had  been  kept  up  and  tv/o  meetings  held  each 
year  for  the  better  accommodation  of  the  large  constitu- 
ency.     It  was  now  dissolved,  and  in  its  place  was  created 


CiiAi'.  111. J     PHILADELPHIA    COXFESSIOX  ADOPTED.         30I 

a  General  Committee,  to  be  "  composed  of  not  more  than 
four  delegates  from  each  district  association,  to  meet  an- 
nually, to  consider  matters  that  may  be  for  the  good  of 
the  whole  society."  It  was  further  resolved  "that  the 
present  association  be  divided  into  four  districts:  Upper 
and  Lower  District,  on  each  side  of  the  James  River." 

Happily  for  the  peace  of  the  connection,  the  Arminian 
tendencies  that  had  manifested  themselves  in  1775  speed- 
ily disappeared.  A  number  of  leaders  continued  to  lean 
toward  Arminianism,  but  the  sentiment  of  the  denomina- 
tion as  a  whole  was  so  decidedly  Calvinistic  that  they  felt 
it  necessary  in  the  interest  of  peace  to  keep  their  Arminian 
views  somewhat  in  the  background.  When  the  General 
Association  was  dividing  itself  into  sections,  it  was  moved 
by  John  Williams  that  a  confession  of  faith  be  adopted 
which  shoulci  afford  a  standard  of  principles  for  subse- 
quent times.  The  Philadelphia  Confession  was  agreed 
upon,  with  the  following  explanations:  "To  prevent  its 
usurping  a  tyrannical  power  over  the  consciences  of  any  : 
We  do  not  mean  that  every  person  is  bound  to  the  strict 
observance  of  everything  therein  contained,  nor  do  we 
mean  to  make  it,  in  any  respect,  superior  or  equal  to  the 
Scriptures,  in  matters  of  faith  and  practice ;  although  we 
think  it  the  best  human  composition  of  the  kind  now  ex- 
tant ;  yet  it  shall  be  liable  to  alterations,  whenever  the 
General  Committee,  in  behalf  of  the  associations,  shall 
think  fit." 

By  1787  the  leaders  of  the  Regular  and  Separate  Bap- 
tists of  Virginia  had  come  to  feel  that  the  differences  be- 
tween the  two  connections  were  too  slight  to  offer  a  bar 
to  fellowship.  The  advances  that  had  been  made  by  the 
Regulars  some  years  before  were  now  to  bear  a  blessed 
fruitage.  The  struggle  against  ecclesiastical  oppression 
for  the  past  ten  years  had  drawn  the  two  parties  closer 


302  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

together.  Negotiations  to  this  end  having  no  doubt  pre- 
ceded, the  Ketokton  Association  sent  delegates  to  the 
General  Committee  at  its  meeting  in  i  786,  who  were  cor- 
dially received  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the  rest.  The 
question  of  union  was  considered,  and  the  General  Com- 
mittee requested  the  different  Associations  to  appoint 
delegates  to  attend  the  next  General  Committee,  for  the 
purpose  of  forming  a  union  with  the  Regular  Baptists. 
The  adoption  of  the  Philadelphia  Confession  by  the  Sepa- 
rates had  prepared  the  way  for  such  union.  They  had 
ceased  to  lay  stress  on  love-feasts,  laying  on  of  hands, 
feet-washing,  the  anointing  of  the  sick,  the  kiss  of  charity, 
the  ceremonial  devotion  of  children,  and  weekly  commun- 
ion. They  still  made  a  point  of  plainness  in  dress.  Their 
undue  enthusiasm  in  revival  work  had  apparently  been 
somewhat  moderated  and  had  ceased  to  be  offensive  to 
the  Regulars.  The  chief  difficulty  in  tlie  way  of  union 
from  the  side  of  the  Regulars  was  the  guarded  way  in 
which  the  Confession  of  Faith  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Separates  and  their  toleration  of  Arminianism.  Yet  they 
were  willing,  in  view  of  the  distinguished  piety  and  use- 
fulness of  the  Separates,  and  the  sacrifices  and  sufferings 
they  had  undergone  on  behalf  of  the  faith,  to  fellowship 
them  on  the  basis  of  their  guarded  acceptance  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Confession.  The  Separates  went  so  far  as  to 
assert  "  that  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  Christ  and  free 
unmerited  grace  alone,  ought  to  be  believed  by  every 
Christian,  and  maintained  by  every  minister  of  the  gospel." 
"Upon  these  terms,"  the  agreement  proceeds,  "we  are 
united  ;  and  desire  hereafter  that  the  names  Regular  and 
Separate  be  buried  in  oblivion  ;  and  that,  from  henceforth, 
we  shall  be  known  by  the  name  of  the  United  Baptist 
Churches  of  Christ,  in  Virginia^  The  union  proved  a 
happy  and  a  permanent  one. 


Chap,  hi.]  RAPID  lA'CREASE.  303 

A  great  revival  of  religion  had  begun  among  the  Bap- 
tists of  Virginia  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war.  Both 
parties  were  largely  engaged  in  it,  and  the  high  state  of 
spiritual  life  in  the  churches  made  the  union  possible. 
The  revival  continued  with  augmented  power  after  the 
union.  The  rapidity  of  the  increase  in  churches  and  mem- 
bership during  the  remainder  of  the  period  is  shown  by 
the  following  statistics :  In  i  784  there  were,  according  to 
the  best  information  available,  151  churches  and  14,960 
members;  about  1790-92  there  were  218  churches  and 
20,443  members;  about  1810-12  there  were  292  churches 
and  35,665  members.  It  is  estimated  by  Semple  that 
fully  one  fourth  of  the  Baptists  of  Virginia  emigrated  to 
Kentucky  between  1791  and  18 10.  The  large  gain  was 
over  and  above  this  heavy  loss.  At  the  close  of  this 
period  there  were  nearly  twice  as  many  Baptists  in  Vir- 
ginia as  in  New  York,  and  some  thousands  more  than  in 
all  the  New  England  States  together. 

After  the  union  of  1787  the  General  Committee  con- 
tinued to  occupy  itself  chiefly  with  efl^orts  for  complete 
separation  of  church  and  state  and  the  abolition  and  pre- 
vention of  all  legislation  that  was  even  constructively 
opposed  to  absolute  liberty  of  conscience. 

Steps  were  taken  in  i  788  toward  publishing  a  history  of 
the  rise  and  progress  of  the  Baptists  in  Virginia,  and  at 
subsequent  meetings  of  the  General  Committee  much 
attention  was  given  to  this  matter.  After  materials  had 
been  gathered  John  Leland  and  John  Williams  were  ap- 
pointed to  compile  them. 

The  Baptists  of  Virginia  accomplished  their  great  work 
up  to  this  time  with  a  very  moderate  amount  of  educa- 
tion. They  possessed  a  number  of  highly  gifted  men,  who 
had  surmounted  the  disadvantages  of  lack  of  literary  and 
theological  culture  by  private  study;  but  it  does  not  ap- 


304 


rilE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 


pear  that  they  had  enjoyed  the  services  of  a  single  college- 
bred  man.      The  Separates,  by  way  of  reaction  against  the 
undue  emphasis  that  was  placed  on  learning  by  the  stand- 
ino-  order  in  New  England,  underestimated  and  discour- 
aged higher  education;     It  was  a  common  thing  among 
them  for  a  recent  convert  with  an  ordinary  education,  or 
none  at  all,  to  begin  at  once  to  preach ;  and  some  of  the 
most  effective  evangelists  were  of  this  type.      Consumed 
with  zeal  for  the  newly  experienced  truth,  they  went  forth 
among  men  of  like  culture  with  themselves  and  preached 
with  irresistible  power.     But  the  leaders  among  them  had 
begun  to  feel  tliat  to  hold  what  they  had  achieved  and  to 
attain   their   high   aims   an    educated   ministry  would    be 
needful.      Their  attention  was  called  to  this  matter  in  i  788 
by  a  letter  from  President  Manning,  of  Rhode  Island  Col- 
lege.     It  might  have  been  expected  that  Manning  would 
urge  the  Virginia  Baptists  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advant- 
ages of  his  own  institution  ;  he  urged  upon  them  rather 
the  importance  of  establishing  an  institution  of  their  own. 
Committees  were  appointed  from  time  to  time,  but  noth- 
ing effective  was  accomplished  for  some  years.     In  i  793  a 
committee  reported  the  following  plan:  "That  14  trustees 
be  appointed,  all  of  whom  shall  be  Baptists:  That  these, 
at  their  first  meeting,  appoint  seven  others  of  some  other 
religious  denomination:   That  the  whole  21  then  form  a 
plan,  and  make  arrangements  for  executing  it."      Nothing 
came  of  this  action,  and  the  Baptists  of  Virginia  remained 
without  an  educational  institution  till  after  the  close  of  the 
present  period. 

During  the  latter  part  of  this  period  the  Methodists, 
now  well  organized  and  aggressive  and  with  their  unpop- 
ular war  policy  well  in  the  past,  pressed  hard  upon  the 
Baptists  in  their  onward  march.  Semple  complains  that 
in  the  towns  Baptists  were  scarcely  holding  their  own  (about 


Chap,  hi.]  PROTEST  AGAINST  SLAVERY.  305 

1 8 10),  while  the  Methodists  were  prospering.  It  is  prob- 
able that  this  was  due  in  part  to  the  more  popular  methods 
and  less  rigorous  requirements  of  the  latter  body,  and  in 
part  to  the  excessive  stress  laid  by  many  Baptist  preachers 
on  the  harsher  aspects  of  Calvinism.  It  was  no  doubt  due 
largely  to  the  keen  rivalry  of  the  Methodists  that  Armin- 
ianism  found  so  little  favor  among  Baptists. 

The  question  of  slavery  greatly  agitated  the  minds  of 
some  of  the  leaders  of  the  denomination  during  this  period. 
Struggling  as  they  were  for  civil  and  religious  liberty,  they 
could  not  fail  to  take  into  consideration  the  bearing  of  their 
principles  on  this  great  national  moral  question.  In  i  789 
the  following  resolution  was  proposed  by  John  Leland  and 
adopted:  "  Resolved,  That  slavery  is  a  violent  deprivation 
of  the  rights  of  nature,  and  inconsistent  with  a  republican 
government,  and  therefore  recommend  it  to  our  brethren, 
to  make  use  of  every  legal  measure  to  extirpate  this  hor- 
rid evil  from  the  land;  and  pray  Almighty  God  that  our 
honorable  legislature  may  have  it  in  their  power  to  pro- 
claim the  great  Jubilee,  consistent  with  the  principles  of 
good  policy."  This  protest  was,  of  course,  ineffective,  and 
the  great  mass  of  Baptists  soon  reconciled  themselves  to 
the  existence  of  slavery  as  an  institution  of  the  land  which 
they  were  powerless  to  abolish,  but  which  they  would  do 
everything  in  their  power  to  mitigate  by  humane  treat- 
ment and  Christian  instruction.  Large  numbers  of  slave- 
owners became  Baptists,  and  even  those  that  were  most  in 
sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  the  above  resolution  felt  them- 
selves helpless.  To  free  their  slaves  might  have  exposed 
them  to  worse  evils  than  to  retain  them  under  gospel 
influences.  Once  recognized  as  under  the  circumstances 
allowable,  the  large  property  interest  involved  was  sure, 
human  nature  being  as  it  is,  to  lead  Christian  slave-owners 
to  seek  to  justify  the  institution  itself.      For  this  purpose 


3o6  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

main  reliance  was  doubtless  placed  on  the  Old  Testament, 
where  slavery  is  everywhere  recognized,  and  on  the  lack 
of  prohibition  in  the  New  Testament.  The  fact  that  the 
New  Testament  exhorts  slaves  to  be  content  and  obedient 
and  masters  to  be  humane  was  thought  to  be  almost  equiv- 
alent to  a  positive  permission  of  slavery.  As  the  very 
best  Baptists  in  the  South,  including  many  of  the  most 
prominent  leaders,  were  slave-owners,  some  of  them  on  a 
large  scale,  it  is  important  that  their  point  of  view  should 
be  understood.  The  following  sentence  from  Richard 
Fuller  no  doubt  expresses  the  sentiment  of  the  best  South- 
ern Baptists  of  his  time  :  "  I  am  unwilling  to  appear  in  any 
controversy  which  can  even  by  implication  place  me  in  a 
false  and  odious  attitude,  representing  me  as  the  eulogist 
and  abettor  of  slavery,  and  not  as  simply  the  apologist  of 
an  institution  transmitted  to  us  by  former  generations — 
the  existence  of  which  I  lament — for  the  commencement 
of  which  I  am  not  at  all  responsible — for  the  extinction  of 
which  I  am  willing  to  make  greater  sacrifices  than  any 
abolitionist  has  made,  or  would  make,  if  the  cause  of  true 
humanity  would  thus  be  advanced." 

The  General  Committee,  having  completed  its  labors  on 
behalf  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  was  dissolved  in  i  799. 
In  1800  its  place  was  taken  by  the  General  Meeting  of 
Correspondence.  Considerable  uneasiness  had  been  man- 
ifested in  some  of  the  associations  lest  the  General  Com- 
mittee should  usurp  authority  belonging  to  the  associa- 
tions or  to  the  churches.  The  constitution  of  the  new  body 
was  in  consequence  so  guarded  that  it  had  little  to  do.  It 
was  not  until  after  the  close  of  this  period  that  it  secured 
the  hearty  cooperation  of  the  denomination  and  became 
a  power  in  cementing  union,  promoting  missions  and  edu- 
cation, and  bringing  the  life  of  the  body  powerfully  to 
bear  upon  the  community. 


C'HAi'.  III.]         PKOGKESS   IN  NORTH   CAROLINA.  307 

In  North  Carolina  the  work  of  the  Baptist  body  (first 
General  and  then  Regular)  gathered  in  the  Kehukee  As- 
sociation, and  that  of  the  Separate  body  gathered  in  the 
Sandy  Creek  Association,  extended  into  all  parts  of  the 
State.  Each  association  soon  had  many  daughters.  The 
distinction  between  Regular  and  Separate  Baptists  was  soon 
abandoned  here  as  in  Virginia ;  yet  it  is  probable  that  a 
more  or  less  clearly  defined  type  of  religious  life  charac- 
terized the  churches  that  sprang  from  each  of  these  centers 
until  late  in  the  next  period.  The  Kehukee  Association 
was  later  to  oppose  missions,  Sunday-schools,  and  other 
modern  means  of  extending  the  influence  of  Christianity. 
It  may  be  worthy  of  note  that  the  Sandy  Creek  Associa- 
tion sent  forth  two  of  the  noblest  leaders  of  the  early  part 
of  the  next  period,  men  who  came  to  occupy  the  foremost 
rank  in  learning,  eloquence,  piet}',  and  denominational  in- 
fluence, each  to  be  succeeded  by  sons  equally  eminent. 
These  were  William  T.  Brantly  and  Basil  Manly.  Un- 
fortunately for  the  Baptist  cause  in  North  Carolina,  the 
services  of  these  noble  men  were  to  be  bestowed  in  other 
parts  of  the  vineyard. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  denomination  during  this  period 
may  be  statistically  exhibited:  In  1740  there  were  a  few 
small  bodies  of  General  Baptists  gathered  by  Paul  Palmer 
and  Joseph  Parker;  in  1784  there  were  42  churches  and 
3276  members;  in  1792  there  were  94  churches  and  7503 
members;  in  181 2  the  number  of  churches  had  risen  to 
204,  and  of  members  to  12,567. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND    GEORGIA. ^ 

The  last  period  closed  with  the  Charleston  Baptists  in 
a  sadly  divided  and  depressed  condition.  A  faction  of 
the  church  had  withdrawn,  on  Arian  grounds,  in  1733, 
and,  having  organized  themselves  as  a  General  Baptist 
church,  held  their  meetings  at  Stono  in  a  house  erected 
for  Regular  Baptist  worship.  Members  of  the  church  liv- 
ing on  the  Ashley  River  had  withdrawn  in  1736  to  form  a 
new  church  under  the  leadership  of  Isaac  Chanler,  an  ex- 
cellent minister  from  England.  Pastor  Tilly,  of  the  Edisto 
branch  of  the  church,  died  in  1744,  much  lamented.  In 
the  same  year  the  church  was  almost  wrecked  by  the  de- 
termination of  the  majority  to  exclude  the  pastor,  Thomas 
Simmons,  for  supposed  Arian  views,  and  the  resistance 
offered  by  a  minority  under  the  lead  of  Francis  Garcia. 
The  majority  were  compelled  by  legal  process  to  share 
the  meeting-house  with  the  heterodox  minority.  In  June, 
1745,  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  appointed  by  the 
faithful  few.  They  signed  a  solemn  covenant  with  one 
another  and  characterized  themselves  as  "  all  members  of 
the  congregation  of  antipedobaptists,  meeting  in  Charles- 
ton, holding  the  doctrine  of  particular  election  and  final 

1  Cf.  "Two  Cent,  of  the  First  Bapt.  Ch.  of  S.  C";  Furman,  "Hist, 
of  the  Charleston  Assoc."  ;  Whilden,  "  Oliver  Hart  "  ;  Burrage;  Campbell, 
"Geo.  BajHists  "  ;  "  Hist,  of  the  Bapt.  Den.  in  Georgia";  Benedict;  Mer- 
cer, "Geo.  Bapt.  Assoc";  Mallary,  "  L.  of  Botsford,"  and  "  Mem.  of 
Mercer";  and  Cathcart,  "Bapt.  Encyc." 

^08 


Chap,  iv.]  OLIVER  HART.  309 

perseverance,  and  denying  Arian,  Arminian,  and  Socinian 
doctrines."  The  signers  were  William  Screven,  William 
Brisbane,  James  Screven,  Thomas  Dixon,  William  Scre- 
ven, Jr.,  Nathaniel  Bullein,  James  Brisbane,  David  Stoll, 
and  Samuel  Stillman.  The  descendants  of  the  first  pastor 
of  the  church  were  among  the  most  active  in  opposition  to 
Socinian  intrusion.  Samuel  Stillman  was  probably  the 
father  of  the  eloquent  and  highly  influential  pastor  of 
the  First  Church,  Boston  (1765  onward).  This  little  band 
purchased  a  lot  for  i^SOO  and  the  next  year  erected  a 
commodious  meeting-house.  Just  at  this  time  the  Euhaw 
members  of  this  church  withdrew  and  formed  a  church 
with  Isaac  Chanler  as  pastor.  Thus  the  church  was  left 
almost  without  members  simultaneously  with  the  increase 
in  its  facilities  for  worship.  But  the  tide  was  about  to 
turn.  Whitefield  was  frequently  in  Charleston  at  about 
this  time  and  preached  repeatedly  in  the  Baptist  meeting- 
house. New  converts  began  to  fill  up  the  depleted  Baptist 
ranks,  and  the  church  was  soon  to  enter  upon  a  glorious 
career,  a  career  which  in  some  respects  can  scarcely  be 
paralleled. 

The  chief  difficulty  experienced  at  this  juncture  was  that 
of  securing  a  suitable  pastor.  Correspondence  with  breth- 
ren in  England  and  in  the  Northern  colonies  in  this  behalf 
long  proved  fruitless.  Elder  Chanler  was  able  during 
some  years  to  preach  for  the  church  fortnightly  ;  but  his 
health  was  failing  and  he  was  the  only  Baptist  minister  in 
the  neighborhood.  Near  the  close  of  1749  Oliver  Hart,  of 
the  Philadelphia  Association,  came  to  fill. the  long- vacant 
pastorate.  He  arrived  on  the  day  of  Elder  Chanler's 
funeral.  He  was  not  highly  educated,  but  was  possessed 
of  a  vigorous  intellect,  a  strong  constitution,  indefatigable 
energy,  excellent  judgment,  and  an  attractive  personality. 
He  was  withal  deeply  pious.     The  church  felt  that  in  his 


3IO  THE  BAPTISTS.  Per.  ii. 

coming  their  prayers  had  been  answered.  For  thirty 
years  he  filled  this  important  position  and  withdrew  only 
when  British  occupation  in  1780  made  it  unsafe  for  him  to 
remain.  He  afterward  became  pastor  at  Hopewell,  N.  J., 
where  he  was  largely  useful.  He  was  urged  to  return 
after  the  close  of  the  war,  but  age  and  attachment  to  his 
new  charge  prevented.  Under  Hart's  ministry  the  church 
flourished  and  Baptist  evangelization  was  fostered  through- 
out the  entire  region. 

To  Hart's  influence  was  due  the  formation  (i  75  i)  of  the 
Charleston  Association,  on  the  model  of  the  Philadelphia.  It 
consisted  at  first  of  only  four  churches — the  Charleston, 
the  Ashley  River,  the  Welsh  Neck,  and  the  Euhaw.  The 
delegates  of  the  latter  failed  to  arrive.  The  pastor  of  the 
Ashley  River  church  was  John  Stephens,  also  from  the 
Philadelphia  Association.  Philip  James,  the  Welsh  Neck 
pastor,  as  well  as  the  church  itself,  had  come  from  the 
Philadelphia  Association.  In  February,  1752,  Francis 
Pelot  became  pastor  of  the  Euhaw  church,  which  he  long 
served  with  ability  and  devotion.  Born  in  Switzerland 
(1720)  and  brought  up  in  the  Reformed  Church,  he  be- 
came a  Baptist  about  1744,  ten  years  after  his  arrival  in 
South  Carolina.  He  was  a  man  of  means,  being  possessed 
of  "three  islands,  and  about  3785  acres  on  the  continent, 
with  slaves  and  stock  in  abundance."  This  notice,  fur- 
nished by  Morgan  Edwards,  is  worthy  of  being  quoted  on 
account  of  the  rarity  of  such  phenomena  up  to  this  time. 
He  was  the  first  in  a  long  line  of  wealthy  Baptist  ministers 
who  administered  their  large  estates  in  the  fear  of  God 
and  proved  a  blessing  to  the  cause.  P^rom  this  time  on- 
ward he  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  Plart  in  his  ag- 
gressive efi"orts  in  behalf  of  education  and  evangelization. 
The  decisions  of  the  Association  on  questions  of  doctrine 
and  polity  are  characterized  by  the  same  moderation  and 


Chap.  IV.]  CHARLESTON  ASSOCIATION.  31I 

wisdom  as  those  of  the  mother  Association.  The  Phila- 
delphia Confession  of  Faith  was  accepted  as  a  fit  expres- 
sion of  the  views  of  the  body.  In  the  matter  of  evangel- 
ization, also,  the  Association  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  Philadelphia.  In  1755  it  was  decided  to  endeavor  to 
raise  money  for  the  support  of  a  missionary  in  the  destitute 
parts  of  South  Carolina  and  the  neighboring  provinces; 
and  Hart  was  authorized,  in  case  funds  were  forthcoming, 
to  make  an  appointment.  The  result  was  that  John  Gano, 
of  the  Philadelphia  Association,  entered  upon  his  highly 
successful  career  as  a  missionary.  He  was  instructed  by 
the  Association  (1756)  to  visit  the  Yadkin  district,  N.  C, 
and  afterward  to  bestow  his  labors  wherever  Providence 
might  seem  to  direct.  The  need  of  educated  ministers 
was  keenly  felt  by  the  Association,  and  steps  were  taken 
(1756)  to  supply  this  need.  ■  The  members  present  sub- 
scribed for  the  churches  £\ll  to  start  an  education  fund, 
and  Stephens,  Hart,  and  Pelot  were  appointed  trustees. 
The  first  beneficiary  was  Evan  Pugh,  appointed  in  1759 
on  Gano's  recommendation.  He  satisfactorily  finished  his 
studies  in  1762  and  was  ordained.  He  was  followed  by 
Samuel  Stillman  and  Edmund  Botsford,  both  of  whom 
proved  eminently  useful.  The  churches  of  the  Charleston 
Association  were  from  the  beginning  among  the  most 
liberal  supporters  of  Rhode  Island  College.  Hart  was  a 
personal  friend  of  President  Manning,  and  John  Gano,  who 
had  wrought  so  successfully  as  the  missionary  of  the 
Association,  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  claims  of  the 
college.  Gano  was  present  at  the  session  of  1774  as  a 
representative  of  the  Philadelphia  Association.  The  needs 
of  the  college  were  considered,  and  Gano,  Hart,  and  Pelot 
were  requested  to  address  the  Baptist  associations  through- 
out America  in  favor  of  a  plan  of  contributions  for  its  sup- 
port.     In    1775    the   churches  were    urged    to    contribute 


312  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'lR.  ii. 

money  for  the  relief  of  Baptists  in  Massachusetts,  who 
were  sufTering  from  restrictions  on  their  reHgious  Hberties. 
The  Baptists  of  the  Charleston  center  were  enthusiastic 
in  their  support  of  the  Revolution.  The  people  of  the  in- 
terior knew  little  of  the  grounds  for  revolt,  and  many  of 
them  were  disposed  to  be  loyal  to  British  rule.  In  1775 
Hart  was  appointed  by  the  provincial  Council  of  Safety 
to  make  a  tour  of  these  regions,  in  company  with  tw^o 
others,  to  explain  to  the  people  the  significance  of  the  re- 
volt and  to  gain  their  support.  He  was  successful  in  his 
mission  and  is  thought  to  have  averted  internecine  war. 
Equally  zealous  was  Richard  Furman.  Though  only 
twenty-one  years  of  age  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  though  already  for  two  years  a  minister  of  the 
gospel,  he  entered  upon  military  service  and  only  retired 
when  he  was  assured  by  those  in  high  authority  that  he 
could  more  effectively  serve  the  cause  by  remaining  in  the 
interior.  So  active  was  he  in  influencing  public  opinion 
that  Lord  Cornwallis  offered  a  large  reward  for  his  appre- 
hension. Here  also  the  zeal  of  the  Baptists  was  due  in 
large  measure  to  their  belief  that  civil  liberty  was  a  condi- 
tion of  religious  liberty. 

In  1776  a  meeting  of  representatives  of  the  dissenting 
denominations  was  held  at  the  High  Hills  of  Santee,  where 
young  Furman  was  Baptist  pastor,  to  deliberate  as  to 
measures  for  the  securing  of  religious  liberty.  It  is  a  re- 
markable fact  that  as  a  result  of  this  meeting  two  of  the 
pedobaptist  ministers,  Joseph  Cook  and  Lewis  Richards, 
became  Bapti.sts.  These  were  Calvinistic  Methodists,  sent 
out  under  the  patronage  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon. 
Both  proved  valuable  accessions. 

Furman  became  pastor  of  the  Charleston  church  in  1787, 
and  was  from  this  time  till  his  death,  in  1826,  easily  the 
foremost  Baptist  of  the  South  and  unsurpassed  in  denom- 


Chap.  IV.]  KICHAKD   FUKMAN.  313 

inational  Influence  by  any  Baptist  of  America.  He  did 
not  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  university  education,  yet 
he  appHed  himself  with  such  diligence  to  theology,  general 
literature,  medicine,  and  political  science  as  to  rank  among 
the  most  highly  cultured  men  of  his  time.  His  physique 
corresponded  accurately  with  the  commanding  and  yet 
gentle  quality  of  his  intellect  and  conduct.  His  manners 
w-ere  those  of  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  and  he  con- 
tinued to  wear  the  dress  of  gentlemen  of  the  later  colonial 
time  long  after  It  had  passed  out  of  common  use.  Like 
Gano,  Manning,  Stillman,  and  other  leading  ministers  of 
the  time,  he  wore  in  the  pulpit  the  gown  and  bands.  His 
ample  wealth  and  the  generosity  with  which  he  used  it  In 
every  good  cause  no  doubt  contributed  much  to  his  influ- 
ence. His  popularity  was  by  no  means  confined  to  his 
own  denomination.  He  was  regarded  by  all  as  one  of 
the  foremost  citizens,  and  was  beloved  for  his  works'  sake. 
He  was  among  the  first  and  most  active  promoters  of  the 
Charleston  Bible  Society.  He  became  Interested  In  for- 
eign mission  work  early  In  his  ministry,  and  in  1805-06 
was  among  the  most  zealous  and  successful  in  raising 
funds  for  the  publication  of  the  Bible  translations  of  Carey 
and  Marshman.  He  was  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the 
great  onward  movement  in  the  denomination  following 
the  conversion  to  Baptist  views  of  Judson  and  Rice.  His 
Influence  in  inducing  Ill-educated  ministers  to  gain  better 
preparation  for  their  work  Is  Inestimable.  The  high  posi- 
tion attained  by  the  Baptists  of  South  Carolina  was  largely 
due  to  Richard  Furman.  Like  several  other  noted  minis- 
ters that  have  been  referred  to,  he  left  a  worthy  posterity. 
The  Charleston  Association  did  not  grow  rapidly  during 
the  first  twenty  years  of  its  history.  After  the  withdrawal 
of  the  North  Carolina  churches,  whose  connection  with  the 
Association  has  been  referred  to,  the  number  of  churches 


314  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

was  reduced  to  eight,  at  which  point  it  remained  until 
1773.  The  entire  membership  at  this  date  was  only  390. 
At  the  meeting  of  1773  Daniel  Marshall  and  other  Sepa- 
rate ministers  were  present  to  discuss  terms  of  union  be- 
tween the  two  bodies,  but  as  the  Separates  were  tenacious 
of  their  peculiarities  nothing  was  accomplished.  They  are 
said  to  have  laid  considerable  stress  on  preciseness  in  dress 
and  language,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  the  Quakers, 
and  to  have  encouraged  private  members  and  women  to 
prophesy.  They  were  suspected  of  Arminian  tendencies, 
and  were  regarded  as  unduly  exclusive  in  refusing  com- 
munion w^ith  those  who  rejected  their  peculiarities. 

Far  more  rapid  was  the  grow^th  of  the  Separate  interest. 
From  the  Sandy  Creek  (N.  C.)  center  the  Separate  move- 
ment advanced  southward  from  1755  onward.  When  the 
General  Association  was  dissolved  in  1771  the  churches  in 
South  Carolina,  seven  in  number — namely,  the  Congaree, 
Fairforest,  Stephen's  Creek,  Burch  River,  Mine  Creek,  and 
two  named  Little  River — formed  the  Congaree  Association. 
The  work  was  carried  forward  with  the  usual  enthusiasm 
and  success  of  this  type  of  Baptists.  The  Congaree  As- 
sociation gave  place  to  the  Bethel  in  1789,  owing  to  some 
difficulties  that  had  arisen  from  the  attempt  of  the  body 
to  control  the  action  of  the  churches.  The  Broad  River 
Association  was  formed  in  1800  of  churches  belonging  to 
the  Bethel.  One  of  the  greatest  revivals  in  the  history  of 
the  Baptists  of  this  State  occurred  in  1802-03.  Fourteen 
hundred  and  eleven  were  baptized  into  the  churches  of 
the  Bethel  Association  in  a  single  year,  w^hile  the  new 
Broad  River  Association,  whose  membership  had  been 
less  than  800,  received  during  the  same  time  1296  by 
baptism.  In  1803  the  Saluda  Association  was  formed  by 
a  further  subdivision  of  the  Bethel. 

About    1787    the   names    Regular  and    Separate  were 


Chap.  IV.]  SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA.  315 

dropped  in  South  Carolina  as  well  as  in  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina.  There  was  to  be  cleavage  on  the  ques- 
tions of  missions,  education,  Sunday-schools,  etc.,  but  this 
did  not  follow  the  old  lines. 

In  1784  there  were  in  South  Carolina  27  churches  and 
1620  members;  in  1792  there  were  70  churches,  with  a 
membership  of  4167;  in  18 12  the  number  of  churches 
had  risen  to  154  and  the  membership  to  11,325. 

Georgia  was  not  opened  to  British  settlement  till  1732. 
A  number  of  English  philanthropists,  under  the  lead  of 
General  Oglethorpe,  conceived  the  idea  of  making  this 
highly  fruitful  and  attractive  land  a  refuge  for  the  im- 
poverished of  pAirope.  In  this  enterprise  they  were  en- 
couraged by  the  South  Carolina  authorities,  who  were 
anxious  to  ha\'e  a  barrier  erected  between  themselves 
and  the  Spaniards.  Savannah  was  the  first  point  to  be 
occupied,  and  long  continued  to  be  the  center  of  admin- 
istration. The  colony  grew  rapidly.  A  large  number 
of  Highland  Scotch  and  Germans  (persecuted  Protestant 
Salzburgers)  came  o\-er  in  1736,  raising  the  European 
population  to  600.  By  1740  over  1500  colonists  had 
been  settled,  at  an  expense  to  the  proprietors  of  more 
than  ;^roo,ooo.  It  was  the  purpose  of  the  philanthropic 
projectors  of  the  colony  to  exclude  slavery,  and  as  the 
population  had  been  settled  at  heavy  expense  no  fee- 
simple  titles  had  been  granted.  These  conditions  pre- 
vented any  influx  of  population  from  the  older  provinces. 
The  colony  failed  to  prosper  until  sla\-ery  was  authorized 
(1749)  and  provision  was  made  for  valid  land-titles  (1750). 
It  was  stated  by  an  English  writer  in  i  740  that  there  were 
"  descendants  of  the  Moravian  Anabaptists  in  the  new 
plantation  of  Georgia."  This  is  not  impossible,  but  the 
Moravian  Brethren  were  probably  intended.  To  provide 
sustenance  and  religious  training  for  the  orphans  of  indi- 


3i6  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  H- 

gent  settlers,  George  Whitefield,  in  pursuance  of  a  plan 
formed  by  John  Wesley  and  General  Oglethorpe,  founded 
in  1740  an  orphan-house,  which  he  called  "  Bethesda," 
and  for  which  he  collected  funds  on  his  evangelistic  tours 
throughout  America  and  Britain.  The  orphanage  was 
located  a  few  miles  south  of  Sa\annah. 

There  were  a  number  of  Baptists,  whose  names  are 
known,  among  the  early  settlers.  In  1757  Nicholas 
Bedgewood,  Whitefield's  agent  at  the  orphanage,  adopted 
Baptist  views  and  was  baptized  by  Oliver  Hart  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  Charleston  church.  Two  years  later  he 
was  ordained  to  the  ministry.  Several  connected  with 
the  orphanage,  including  B.  Stirk,  were  baptized  by  him  in 
I  763,  and  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered  in  the  in- 
stitution, to  the  no  small  annoyance  of  Whitefield.  Bedge- 
wood was  a  man  of  classical  education  and  of  popular  gifts. 
He  soon  removed  to  South  Carolina,  where  he  labored  for 
many  years.  Stirk  remoxed  up  the  Sa\-annah  River  about 
eighteen  miles,  became  a  member  of  the  Euhaw,  S.  C, 
church,  and  ministered  till  his  death  in  1770  to  a  few 
Baptists  at  Tuckaseeking,  twenty  miles  farther  up  the 
river.  The  Baptists  gathered  by  Stirk  seem  to  have  re- 
mained a  branch  of  the  Euhaw  church. 

The  work  at  Tuckaseeking  was  continued  in  1771  by 
Edmund  Botsford,  who  had  just  completed  a  course  of 
literary  and  theological  training  under  the  direction  of 
Oliver  Hart  and  as  a  beneficiary  of  the  Education  Fund 
of  the  Charleston  Association.  He  was  greatly  aided  and 
encouraged  by  Francis  Pelot,  the  pastor  of  the  Euhaw 
church.  Botsford  did  not  confine  his  labors  to  Tuckaseek- 
ing, but  evangelized  on  both  sides  of  the  river  from  Savan- 
nah to  Kiokee,  north  of  Augusta.  He  devoted  himself 
entirely  to  evangelistic  work  from  1772  onward,  and  many 
were  converted  under  his  preaching. 


CiiAP.  IV. J  DANIEL   MARSHALL.  •         317 

A  still  more  important  event  in  the  history  of  Georgia 
Baptists  was  the  settlement  of  the  venerable  pioneer  Sepa- 
rate Baptist  missionary,  Daniel  Marshall,  in  Columbia 
County,  about  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Augusta.  This 
occurred  in  January,  1771.  Marshall  was  now  sixty-four 
years  old  and  had  behind  him  a  truly  apostolic  record. 
Almost  equally  useful  was  his  wife,  a  sister  of  Shubael 
Stearns.  His  son  Abraham  was  to  follow  nobly  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  parents  and  to  become  one  of  the  most 
useful  ministers  of  his  time.  As  the  Church  of  England 
haci  been  established  by  law  in  the  colony  in  1758,  an 
officious  magistrate  had  Marshall  arraigned  for  violation 
of  the  law.  He  defended  himself  with  such  unction  that 
constable  and  magistrate  were  both  deeply  impressed  and 
afterward  converted. 

The  first  Baptist  church  in  Georgia  was  that  founded  at 
Kiokee  (now  Applington)  by  Daniel  Marshall.  This  church 
was  incorporated  by  the  colonial  authorities  in  I  789  as  "  the 
Anabaptist  Church  on  Kioka." 

Shortly  after  the  organization  of  the  Kiokee  church 
Botsford  was  the  guest  of  Colonel  Barnard,  the  magistrate 
before  whom  Marshall  had  been  arraigned,  and  was  in- 
troduced by  him  to  the  venerable  missionary.  Botsford 
preached  and  IMarshall  was  pleased.  "  I  can  take  thee 
by  the  hand  and  call  thee  brother,"  he  said,  "  for  some- 
how I  ne\'er  heard  convarsion  better  explained  in  mv  life." 
Thus  a  fraternal  relation  was  established  between  the 
Regular  and  Separate  workers  in  Georgia  that  was  to 
prove  highly  advantageous.  Marshall  died  in  1784,  hav- 
ing lived  to  see  six  Baptist  churches  formed  in  Georgia 
and  having  presided  at  the  organization  of  the  Georgia 
Association  (1784). 

Botsford  was  not  ordained  until  March,  1773.  His  con- 
verts had  been  baptized  by  Marshall  and  the  ministers  of 


3l8  THE  BAPriSrS.  [Per.  n. 

the  Charleston  Association.  He  was  abundant  in  labors, 
and  so  rapidly  did  he  move  from  place  to  place  that  he 
was  sometimes  called  the  "flying  preacher."  He  carried 
forward  his  work  in  Georgia  with  unremitting  zeal  until 
1779.  Having  built  up  a  strong  church  in  Burke  County 
(the  Brier  Creek),  he  founded  two  others  and  prepared 
the  way  for  more.  Along  with  Abraham  Marshall  and 
Silas  Mercer,  he  felt  obliged  to  flee  before  the  British 
after  the  defeat  of  General  Ashe  at  Brier  Creek  (March, 
1779).  But  Daniel  Marshall,  hero  that  he  was,  stood  at 
his  post,  nothing  daunted.  He  was  instant  in  season  and 
out  of  season.  At  musters  or  races,  in  the  open  field,  in 
the  market-place,  in  the  army,  or  in  the  home,  he  was  al- 
ways ready  to  proclaim  salvation  through  a  crucified  Re- 
deemer, and  multitudes  heeded  his  earnest  words.  One 
of  the  chief  means  by  which  Marshall  was  so  largely  suc- 
cessful in  evangelization  was  the  encouragement  and  em- 
ployment of  lay  preaching.  A  large  number  of  young 
men,  most  of  whom  became  useful  ministers,  were  licensed 
to  preach  anci  were  ready  to  assume  pastorates  as  new 
churches  were  organized.  Of  this  number  were  Silas 
Mercer  and  Abraham  Marshall. 

Before  the  beginning  of  the  war  (1776)  there  were  three 
(possibly  four)  churches  in  Georgia:  Kiokee  (1772);  Bots- 
ford's  (1773);  Red's  Creek  (1774).  There  was  a  church 
on  Buckhead  Creek  organized  before  or  during  the  war. 
It  became  extinct,  its  loyalist  pastor,  Matthew  Moore, 
having  left  the  country.  Two  churches  were  organized 
during  the  war:  Little  Brier  Creek  (1777)  and  Fishing 
Creek  (1782).  These  were  all  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Augusta. 

The  formation  of  the  Georgia  Association  (preliminary 
meeting,  October,  1784;  first  meeting  for  business.  May, 
1785)  was  an  event  of  first  importance  in  the  history  of 


Chap.  IV.]  77/^   GEORGIA   ASSOCIATION.  319 

Georgia  Baptists.  It  was  soon  to  become  one  of  the 
strongest  and  most  influential  bodies  in  the  denomination, 
and  its  record  has  been  in  every  way  a  most  honorable 
one.  During  the  earlier  time  (till  1791)  it  held  two  ses- 
sions each  year. 

When  the  Association  was  organized  (1784)  there  were 
only  six  Baptist  churches  in  Georgia.  From  this  time 
onward  the  growth  of  the  denomination  was  rapid  and 
steady.  In  Wilkes  County  twenty-two  churches  were 
formed  between  1784  and  1790.  Silas  Mercer  was  the 
leader,  but  he  had  the  enthusiastic  support  of  a  large 
number  of  licentiates,  some  of  whom  were  ordained  before 
the  latter  date.  Mercer  was  a  somewhat  stern  doctrinal 
preacher,  but  he  carried  conviction  wherever  he  went  and 
multitudes  were  converted  through  his  ministry.  He  was, 
after  Daniel  Marshall's  death,  the  leader  of  the  churches 
of  the  Association.  But  he  is  best  known  as  the  father 
of  Jesse  Mercer,  whose  name  will  ever  be  treasured  by 
Georgia  Baptists.  One  of  the  most  amiable,  laborious,  and 
successful  ministers  of  this  time  was  Abraham  Marshall. 
Born  in  i  748,  before  his  father  left  New  Jingland  on  his 
wonderful  missionary  tour  southward,  he  was  baptized 
when  twenty-two  years  of  age  and  at  once  began  to 
preach.  Until  i  784  he  itinerated  almost  constantly.  ITe 
succeeded  his  father  in  the  pastorate  of  the  Kiokee  church, 
yet  continued  to  travel  much  as  an  e\angelist. 

The  Association  ha\-ing  by  i  794  increased  to  fifty-six 
churches  (of  which  four  or  more  were  in  South  Carolina), 
a  division  was  deemed  advisable  and  the  Hepzibah  Asso- 
ciation was  formed.  This  included  most  of  the  churches 
in  Richmond,  Burke,  Jefferson,  Warren,  and  Washington 
counties.  The  Sarepta  Association,  formed  in  i  799,  was 
a  second  offshoot  from  the  Georgia  and  included  the 
churclies  of  Oglethorpe,  Elbert,  and  Franklin  counties. 


320  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

The  first  colored  Baptist  church  in  Georgia  was  organ- 
ized in  Savannah,  with  the  help  of  Abraham  Marshall,  in 
1788  The  church  was  gathered  through  the  labors  of 
George  Leile  (or  Sharp),  a  remarkable  colored  man,  who 
had  been  converted  in  Burke  County  about  1774  through 
the  preaching  of  Matthew  Moore,  the  loyalist  already 
mentioned.  Leile  fled  to  Jamaica  at  the  close  of  the  war. 
One  of  his  converts,  Andrew  Bryan,  took  up  the  work. 
These  colored  Baptists  were  cruelly  persecuted,  and  dis- 
played considerable  heroism  in  their  devotion  to  the  faith. 
By  I  788  persecution  had  ceased.  In  four  years  the  mem- 
bership had  risen  from  eighty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty, while 
there  were  three  hundred  and  fifty  others  who  were  ap- 
plicants for  membership.  Nearly  all  the  churches  doubt- 
less had  a  considerable  contingent  of  colored  members  at 
this  time. 

The  close  of  the  century  was  a  period  of  marked  de- 
pression in  denominational  life  and  work.  A  number  of 
the  earlier  leaders  had  passed  away,  and  inactivity  and  dis- 
couragement had  followed  the  great  revivals  of  the  earlier 
time.  A  new  set  of  men,  better  educated  and  abler  than 
those  of  the  past,  were  now  coming  forward  and  would 
lead  the  denomination  to  still  nobler  achievements.  The 
most  prominent  of  these  were  Henry  Holcombe,  Joseph 
Clay,  and  Jesse  Mercer. 

Holcombe  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1762,  but  was 
brought  up  in  South  Carolina.  He  became  a  cavalry 
officer  before  he  was  twenty-one.  Converted  at  twenty- 
two,  he  began  at  once  to  exhort  others  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come.  His  first  sermon  was  preached  on  horse- 
back to  his  troops.  Led  to  Baptist  views  by  a  stud\'  of  the 
New  Testament,  he  rode  twenty  miles  to  get  himself  bap- 
tized. He  so  impressed  his  views  on  his  own  and  his  wife's 
family  that  several  of  them  becam.e  Baptists.      He  was  or- 


Chap,  iv.]  HENRY  IWLCOMBE.  32 1 

dained  to  the  ministry  in  1785  and  soon  took  his  place 
among  the  foremost  preachers  of  the  State.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  convention  that  approved  the  United 
States  Constitution.  After  serving  the  Euhaw  church  for 
some  time  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  undertake  work  in 
Savannah,  where  a  number  of  Baptists  resided  and  various 
efforts  had  been  ineffectively  made  to  found  a  Baptist 
church.  The  Charleston  church  had  taken  a  deep  interest 
in  the  cause  at  Savannah  and  had  assisted  in  building  a 
meeting-house  (1795).  This  had  been  rented  to  an  inde- 
pendent Presbyterian  congregation,  who  joined  with  the 
Baptists  in  inviting  Holcombe.  The  congregation  must 
have  been  a  wealthy  one,  for  Holcombe  received  a  salary 
of  $2000  a  year,  probably  the  largest  ever  received  by  a 
Baptist  minister  up  to  that  time.  A  Baptist  church  con- 
sisting of  ten  members  besides  himself  and  wife  was  or- 
ganized in  November,  1800.  By  1802  the  membership 
had  increased  to  sixty  and  the  Presbyterians  withdrew. 
Among  the  members  were  the  widow  of  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Jones  and  Judge  Joseph  Clay.  Holcombe  remained 
in  this  position  until  181 1,  when  he  accepted  a  call  to 
Philadelphia.  As  pulpit  orator,  writer,  organizer,  and 
originator  of  schemes  for  the  advancement  of  the  denomi- 
national work,  he  deserves  to  be  placed  side  by  side  with 
his  friend  Richard  Furman  as  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  his 
time.  Like  Furman,  he  had  a  magnificent  physique,  being 
six  feet  two  inches  in  height,  and  weighing  three  hundred 
pounds.  He  is  said  to  have  originated  the  Georgia  peni- 
tentiary system  and  to  have  led  in  founding  the  Savannah 
Female  Orphan  Asylum.  He  was  among  the  first  to  ad- 
vocate and  plan  for  concerted  denominational  action  in 
education  and  missions.  He  was  the  moving  .spirit  in  the 
founding  of  Mount  Enon  Academy  for  the  education  of 
Baptist  youth.      He  seems  to  have  been  the  first  among 


322  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

American  Baptists  to  publish  a  religious  periodical  (the 
"Analytical  Repository,"  1802-03). 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Jesse  Mercer  as  the 
worthy  son  of  Silas  Mercer.  During  the  first  decade  of 
the  century  he  stood  side  by  side  with  Holcombe  in  his 
advocacy  of  education,  missions,  and  concerted  denomina- 
tional action,  and  after  the  departure  of  Holcombe  he  was 
for  years  the  recognized  leader  of  the  progressive  element 
of  the  denomination.  Born  in  North  Carolina  in  1 769, 
he  was  brought  by  his  parents  to  Wilkes  County,  Ga., 
when  an  infant.  In  1787  he  was  baptized  by  his  father 
and,  after  the  manner  of  the  Separate  Baptists  of  that 
time,  began  almost  immediately  to  labor  for  the  salvation 
of  souls.  Before  he  had  completed  his  twentieth  year  he 
was  ordained  to  the  ministry.  He  secured  such  education 
as  was  at  that  time  available  in  this  newly  settled  country, 
and  through  the  industrious  application  of  his  strong  in- 
tellect became  an  able  theologian.  His  career  as  editor 
of  a  denominational  paper,  promoter  of  the  State  Conven- 
tion, and  leader  in  the  establishment  and  endowment  of 
Mercer  University,  falls  in  the  next  period. 

No  worthier  name  appears  on  the  records  of  this  period 
than  that  of  the  Hon.  Joseph  Clay.  He  was  a  son  of  a 
Revolutionary  colonel  of  the  same  name,  who  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress  (1778-80)  and  had 
held  other  high  positions.  Converted  to  Baptist  views 
under  the  ministry  of  Henry  Holcombe,  he  left  his  high 
judicial  position  to  become  a  humble  Baptist  minister. 
He  was  baptized  and  licensed  in  1802  and  ordained  in 
1804.  He  served  ably  as  a  member  of  the  General  Com- 
mittee for  a  number  of  years  and  in  1807  was  called  to 
succeed  Stillman  as  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Boston. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Princeton  College.  As  a  member 
of  the  Georgia  Constitutional  Convention  of  1798  he  had 


CHAr.  IV.]  THE   rOWELTON  CONFERENCE.  323 

the  honor  of  drafting  the  revised  constitution.      He  died 
in  181 1,  in  the  forty-seventh  year  of  his  age. 

The  Savannah  Association  was  formed  in  1802,  under 
Holcombe's  direction,  and  consisted  at  first  of  Holcombe's 
Savannah  church,  the  colored  Savannah  cluirch,  and  the 
Newington  church,  twenty  miles  up  the  river.  Two  other 
colored  churches  were  added  in  1803.  The  membership 
of  the  white  churches  was  eighty-four,  while  that  of  the 
colored  churches  was  eight  hundred  and  fifty. 

In  view  of  the  languishing  condition  of  denominational 
life  already  referred  to,  leading  brethren,  after  consulta- 
tion, called  a  Conference  at  Powelton  (iSoi),  where  Jesse 
Mercer  was  pastor.  Steps  were  taken  for  the  supplying 
of  destitute  churches  and  for  opening  up  new  fields  by 
the  employment  of  missionaries.  In  the  years  of  fresh 
enthusiasm  church  extension  had  gone  forward  sponta- 
neously, but  the  time  had  come  when  deliberate  planning 
and  concerted  action  were  necessary.  The  Methodists, 
organized  and  aggressive,  were  in  the  field,  and  Baptists 
must  organize  or  be  left  far  behind.  Steps  were  taken, 
also,  toward  the  evangelization  of  the  Indians.  At  this 
meeting  it  was  proposed  that  "  a  General  Committee  of 
the  Georgia  Baptists  should  be  formed,  consisting  of  three 
members  from  each  Association  in  the  State,  the  leading 
object  of  which  should  be,  to  meet  and  confer  with  other 
Christian  societies,  in  order  to  remove  diff'erences,  and,  if 
possible,  bring  about  a  more  general  and  close  union 
among  real  Christians  on  the  principles  of  eternal  truth." 

The  General  Committee  was  constituted  by  the  favor- 
able action  of  the  Associations  and  held  its  first  meeting  at 
Powelton,  April  30,  1803.  It  issued  an  address  "to  the 
Baptist  Associations,  and  all  gospel  ministers,  not  of  their 
order,  within  this  State,"  signed  by  Abraham  Marshall  as 
chairman  and   Henry  Holcombe  as  secretary.      The  first 


324  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

part  of  the  document  is  an  effort  to  remove  the  objections 
that  had  been  raised  in  the  Associations  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  General  Committee,  and  is  a  strong  plea  for 
united  action.  The  committee  is  spoken  of  as  "  a  bond  of 
union,  center  of  intelligence,  and  advisory  council  to  the 
Baptists  of  this  State."  "  The  leading  object  of  this  Com- 
mittee is  to  advance  your  general  interests  by  drawing 
your  lights  to  a  focus  and  giving  unity,  consistency,  and, 
consequently,  energy  and  effect  to  your  exertions  in  the 
cause  of  God.  With  a  steady  view  to  an  object  so  desir- 
able and  important,  we  trust  that  converted  individuals, 
unconnected  with  any  religious  society,  and  of  our  denom- 
inational sentiments,  will  join  themselves  to  our  churches ; 
that  the  churches  will  punctually  support  their  represent- 
atives in  the  Associations ;  and  that  these  venerable  bodies 
will  appear  by  three  delegates  from  each  at  the  time  and 
place  appointed  for  the  meeting  of  this  Committee.  In 
that  case  the  seats  which  we  have  the  honor  to  fill,  as  the 
Committee  of  the  late  Conference,  we  shall  most  cheer- 
fully resign  to  your  delegates ;  but  so'  essential  to  the 
Baptist  interests  in  this  State  do  we  deem  the  General 
Committee,  that,  should  there  be  a  deficiency  in  your  rep- 
resentation, we  are  bound,  as  appears  by  our  Minutes,  to 
supply  it  by  the  method  which  may  appear  most  eligible." 

Since  the  first  meeting  of  the  Conference  in  1801  there 
had  been  a  great  religious  awakening,  and  this  was  attrib- 
uted in  some  measure  to  the  activity  of  the  Conference. 
The  second  session  of  the  Conference  (1802)  had  taken 
steps  toward  a  general  union;  the  third  session  (1803) 
matured  the  plan  for  formal  presentation  to  the  Associa- 
tions, reserving  the  right  to  continue  the  organized  efforts 
for  concerted  denominational  action  whether  the  Associa^ 
tions  should  approve  or  disapprove. 

The  second  part   of  the  document,  addressed  to  "  all 


Chap,  iv.]  CHRISTIAN  UXIOX.  325 

gospel  ministers,  not  of  our  order,"  is  significant  of  the 
broad-mindedness  of  the  members  of  the  Conference  and 
their  earnest  aspirations  after  Christian  union.  It  reads  as 
follows:  "  Reverend  Brethren:  We  are  assured  by  revela- 
tion, and  have  the  happiness  to  feel,  that  all  who  love  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  make  but  one  family.  If 
of  this  description,  our  Father,  our  elder  Brother,  and  the 
Spirit  that  is  given  us,  are  the  same ;  and  the  same  our 
hopes,  our  fears,  our  desires,  our  aversions,  our  sorrows, 
and  our  pleasures.  Whenever  we  act  like  aliens  toward 
each  other,  it  is  because  we  are  disguised  by  our  imper- 
fections, or  misrepresented  by  our  adversaries.  Impressed 
with  these  sentiments,  we  shall  be  happy  to  see  you  all,  or 
any  of  you,  at  our  next  meeting,  that  we  may  enjoy  the 
opportunity,  in  our  public  cajjacity,  of  evincing  to  you  and 
to  the  world  our  sincere  disposition  and  earnest  desire  to 
cultivate  and  maintain  friendship  and  fellowship,  not  only 
with  you,  but  with  all  the  true  followers  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  your  respective  denominations.  .  .  .  We  are  cordially 
willing  to  add,  in  conjunction  with  you,  our  best  endeavors 
to  remove  every  obstacle  to  our  communion  at  that  board 
which,  we  trust,  will  be  succeeded  by  an  infinitel}^  richer 
banquet  in  our  Father's  house.  With  the  greatest  respect 
and  aflfection,  we  invite  you,  Reverend  Brethren,  to  an  in- 
vestigation, in  order  to  a  Scriptural  adjustment  of  the  com- 
paratively small  points  in  which  we  differ." 

This  union  plank  of  the  platform  of  the  Conference  was 
looked  upon  with  suspicion  by  many  and  proved  an  ob- 
stacle to  the  cordial  cooperation  of  the  Associations. 
Nothing  seems  to  have  come  of  it,  as  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  members  of  the  Conference  themselves  were  willing  to 
surrender  any  of  their  denominational  tenets,  and  it  was 
scarcely  to  be  expected  that  the  pedobaptists  would  all  at 
once,  in   response  to  such  overtures,  abandon  what  Bap- 


326  THE  BArriSTS.  [Per.  ii. 

tists  have  ever  regarded  as  an  unscriptural  and  unwar- 
ranted practice.  Two  Episcopal  and  two  Methodist  minis- 
ters were  present  at  the  meeting  of  1804,  but  not  in  any 
representative  capacity.  Yet  the  committee  resolved  "  to 
continue  their  sincere  efforts  to  promote  "  Christian  union 
"  by  all  means  consistent  with  the  rights  of  conscience 
and  a  plain  declaration  of  the  whole  revealed  counsel 
of  God." 

Christian  education  occupied  almost  the  entire  attention 
of  this  session  of  the  General  Committee.  It  was  unani- 
mously resolved  to  take  immediate  measures  for  establish- 
ing a  literary  institution  to  be  denominated  "  The  Baptist 
College  of  Georgia,"  and  a  committee  of  five  was  appointed 
to  secure  from  the  legislature  a  charter  for  the  incorpora- 
tion of  the  General  Committee  as  "  The  Trustees  of  the 
Baptist  College  of  Georgia."  A  circular  letter  on  "The 
Importance  of  Education  "  was  addressed  to  the  churches. 

The  effort  to  secure  a  charter  was  unsuccessful,  but  at 
the  next  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  it  was  "  re- 
solved unanimously,  that  the  Committee  would  persevere 
in  their  efforts  to  establi-sh  a  college  or  seminary  of  learn- 
ing for  the  education  of  youth  of  every  denomination, 
though  they  should  never  obtain  the  slightest  legislative 
aid." 

The  Circular  Address  of  1805,  drafted  by  Jesse  Mercer, 
is  a  document  of  great  interest.  The  first  part  is  an  ex- 
planation of  the  committee's  position  on  the  communion 
question:  "  Though  to  commune  at  the  Lord's  table  with 
all  the  truly  gracious  is  desirable  in  the  extreme,  and 
though  it  is  the  duty  of  all  ministers  to  exert  themselves 
to  lead  all  the  followers  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  in 
tJie  unity  (  f  the  Spirit  and  tltc  Invuh  of  peace,  yet  it  should 
seem  that  this  duty  must  be  discharged  with  a  truly  pious 
and  inflexible  regard  to  the  purity,  sufficiency,  and  unity 


Chap,  iv.]  A    CIRCULAR  ADDRESS.  327 

of  the  gospel.  That  no  unrighteous  compact  be  formed, 
directly  or  indirectly,  with  unbehevers  or  the  Sons  of 
Belial,  that  violence  be  practiced  on  no  ordinance  or  doc- 
trine of  God's  holy  Word,  and  that  proper  measures  should 
be  adopted  and  pursued  till  all  the  churches  of  the  saints 
be  freed  from  all  those  superstitious  innovations,  human 
traditions,  and  vile  hypocrisies  which  have  been  so  long 
the  disgrace  of  their  solemn  Assemblies,  and  still  are  the 
baneful  sources  of  that  unhappy  difference  which  now 
wards  off  the  desired  communion.  This  done,  and  com- 
munion will  instantly  follow  in  beautiful,  sweet,  and  desir- 
able succession;  but  this  not  done,  and  we  are  obliged  to 
think  that  it  would  be  undesirable  and  destructive." 

The  effort  to  secure  a  charter  and  the  incorporation  of 
the  committee  seems  to  have  been  misunderstood  or  mis- 
represented by  some  brethren  as  an  attempt  to  establish 
the  Baptist  form  of  religion  by  law.  The  utter  incongruity 
of  such  a  supposition  is  abl}'  shown  in  the  Address :  "  Such 
a  measure  adopted  by  the  Baptists  would  set  them  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  their  openly  avowed,  most  sacred  and 
distinguishing  principles  of  faith  ;  and  also  cast  the  most 
undeserved  contempt  upon  that  temper  and  disposition  of 
mind  which  so  long,  without  variation  or  abatement,  dis- 
tinguished them  as  the  zealous  advocates  of  Civil  and  Re- 
ligious Liberty.  When  things  are  placed  in  this  light,  it 
is  evident  that,  except  we  could  dishonor  ourselves,  depose 
the  church,  subvert  religion,  and  desert  the  divine  will,  we 
cannot  have  any  clandestine  views  in  contemplation."  It 
is  evident  that  in  their  efforts  to  elevate  the  denomination 
to  the  height  of  its  privileges  the  General  Committee  had 
a  large  amount  of  Baptist  ignorance  and  bigotry  to  contend 
with. 

The  educational  policy  of  the  committee  is  next  vin- 
dicated.     "  It  has  been  thought  we  are  adopting  measures 


^28  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'kr.  ii. 

to  establish  in  our  church — in  particular — a  learned  minis- 
try." The  Address  proceeds  to  show  that  the  evils  of 
an  educated  ministry  have  been  due  not  to  the  education 
but  to  other  causes.  There  was  a  widespread  fear  amoni^ 
Baptists  at  this  time  lest  a  man-made  ministry  should  take 
the  place  of  a  Spirit-impelled  ministry.  The  Address 
claims  that  if  the  circumstances  that  have  tended  to  sub- 
stitute education  for  piety  "  could  be  detached,  learning 
would  immediately  shine  forth  in  its  native  luster  and  in- 
trinsic worth,  tending  to  the  better  state  of  society  in 
general.  To  that  part  of  this  work  which  belongs  to  the 
divine  agency,  we  make  no  pretensions;  but  so  far  as 
learning  will  tend  to  the  removal  of  ignorance,  prejudice, 
and  presumption,  so  far  it  is  ours,  and  should  be  attended 
to  with  promptitude  and  perseverance.  .  .  .  The  proposed 
college  is  not,  therefore,  designed  for  the  education  of  our 
children,  nor  is  this  seat  of  learning  one  in  which  young 
men  already  in  the  ministry  sJiall,  but  may  be,  further 
taught  in  some  proper  degree.  But  it  is  to  be  viewed  as 
a  civil  institution  to  be  religiously  guarded  and  conducted 
for  the  better  education  of  the  rising  generation  and  com- 
mon interests  of  morality  and  religion.  .  .  .  That  we  have 
it  in  our  power  to  do  good  in  no  way  to  greater  advant- 
age than  by  establishing  some  lasting  source  of  knowl- 
edge and  moral  virtue  is  a  certain  truth.  To  hand  down 
to  the  next  generation  a  number  of  young  men  both  moral 
and  sensible  must  not  fail  to  awaken  the  warmest  desires 
and  provoke  the  best  endeavors  of  all  well-disposed 
parents." 

In  1806  the  General  Committee  detached  itself  from 
the  Associations,  became  a  close  corporation  with  power 
to  fill  vacancies,  and  took  measures  for  the  establishment 
of  Mount  Enon  College  on  a  beautiful  sand-hill  in  Rich- 
mond County  between  the  Savannah  and  Ogeechee  rivers. 


Cir.vi'.  IV.]  THE    GEXERAL    CO^LMITTEE.  329 

Holcombe,  who  presented  the  property,  guaranteed  the  sale 
of  $2600  worth  of  building  lots,  thus  creating  a  fund  for 
the  erection  of  buildings. 

The  committee  decided  this  year  to  "  appoint  two 
agents — one  to  preach  on  the  western  frontier  of  the 
State  and  visit  the  Creek  Nation  with  reference  to  tlie 
establishment  of  a  school  as  the  germ  of  a  mission  there ; 
and  the  other  to  make  a  preaching  tour  throughout  the 
United  States  to  solicit  funds  to  aid  in  establishing  Mount 
Enon  College." 

The  General  Committee  as  it  was  reconstructed  at  this 
time  consisted  of  Benjamin  Brooks,  Joseph  Clay,  Lewis 
C.  Da\'is,  Stephen  Gafford,  Henry  Holcombe,  Abraham 
Marshall,  James  Matthews,  Jesse  Mercer,  Benjamin  Mose- 
ley,  Thomas  Polhill,  Thomas  Rhodes,  and  Charles  O. 
Screven.  Holcombe  was  appointed  president,  Mercer 
vice-president,  Polhill  secretary,  and  B.  S.  Screven  treas- 
urer. C.  O.  Screven,  a  grandson  of  the  father  of  South 
Carolina  Baptists,  was  appointed  president  of  the  college. 
While  refusing  to  grant  a  university  charter,  the  legislature 
incorporated  the  trustees  of  the  academy.  The  institution 
failed  to  receive  adequate  denominational  support.  The 
location  proved  to  be  unsuitable,  and  several  schools  of 
similar  grade  were  soon  afterward  opened  at  various 
points.  It  did  not  long  survive  Dr.  Holcombe's  removal 
to  Philadelphia  (181 1).  But  the  agitation  that  had  re- 
sulted in  its  establishment  was  not  in  vain.  A  large  part 
of  the  denomination  had  been  convinced  that  education 
could  not  safely  or  righteously  be  neglected.  Experience 
had  been  gained  which  would  prove  invaluable  in  the 
inauguration  and  management  of  the  later  educational 
enterprises  that  were  to  result  in  the  establishment  of 
Mercer  University.  The  application  for  a  charter  was 
doubtless  premature.      The  legislature  rightly  withheld  a 


330  THE   BATTISTS,  [I^er.  ii. 

charter  until  the  denomination  should  show  itself  capable 
of  founding  and  sustaining  a  worthy  institution  and  es- 
pecially until  the  denomination  as  such  should  express  a 
desire  for  a  charter.  The  work  of  the  General  Committee 
was  of  the  utmost  value,  not  simply  for  what  it  actually 
accomplished,  but  because  it  prepared  the  way  for  con- 
certed denominational  action.  The  State  Convention 
of  a  later  time,  with  its  highly  beneficent  activities,  was 
a  result. 

The  Baptists  of  Georgia  were  little  disturbed  by  doc- 
trinal dissension.  About  1786  Jeremiah  Walker,  who 
had  been  a  leading  advocate  of  Arminianism  among  the 
Virginia  Separate  Baptists,  and  who  had  been  deposed 
from  the  ministry  for  misconduct  but  afterward  restored, 
appeared  among  the  Baptists  of  Georgia  and  by  his  elo- 
quence and  ability  soon  gained  considerable  influence.  In 
his  attempt  to  promulgate  Arminian  views  he  had  the 
support  of  David  Tinsley,  who  had  suffered  imprisonment 
with  him  in  Virginia  for  fidelity  to  Baptist  principles, 
Matthew  Talbot,  and  Nathaniel  Hall.  They  were  op- 
posed by  the  great  mass  of  the  denomination,  and  after 
earnest  efforts  had  been  made  to  win  them  from  error  they 
were  duly  excommunicated.  Walker  died  shortly  after- 
ward, and  the  Arminian  movement  practically  died  with 
him.  The  intrusion  of  Arminian  teaching  at  this  time 
was  looked  upon  as  all  the  more  to  be  deprecated  from 
the  fact  that  the  Methodists  were  pressing  into  the  State. 
Two  South  Carolina  churches  that  belonged  to  the  Georgia 
Association  followed  Hall  in  his  Arminianism  and  formed 
a  separate  Association  which  continued  for  a  number  of 
years. 

The  case  of  James  Hutchinson,  whose  immersion  by  a 
Methodist  minister  had  been  accepted  by  the  Georgia 
Baptists    but    repudiated    by    the    Baptists    of    Virginia, 


Chap,  iv.]  COLORED  BAPTISTS.  33 1 

caused  considerable  embarrassment,  and  it  was  the  opin- 
ion of  the  Georgia  Baptist  leaders  that  a  serious  mistake 
had  been  made  in  the  matter. 

As  has  already  appeared,  the  Baptists  of  Georgia  were 
attentive  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  colored  population, 
and  the  colored  churches  and  their  pastors  were  treated 
with  the  utmost  courtesy  and  consideration.  By  18 10 
the  population  of  Georgia  had  reached  252,432,  of  whom 
145,414  were  slaves.  A  number  of  large  churches  had 
been  built  up  by  the  labors  of  colored  preachers,  encour- 
aged by  their  white  brethren ;  and  most  of  the  white 
churches  had  large  numbers  of  colored  members.  One 
of  the  most  noted  of  the  colored  ministers  was  Andrew 
Bryan,  of  Savannah.  In  1812  the  Savannah  Association 
adopted  the  following  minute:  "The  Association  is  sensi- 
bly affected  by  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  Bryan,  a 
man  of  color,  and  pastor  of  the  First  Colored  Church  in 
Savannah.  This  son  of  Africa,  after  suffering  inexpre'  si- 
ble  persecutions  in  the  cause  of  his  divine  Master,  was  at 
length  permitted  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  ministry 
among  his  colored  friends  in  peace  and  quiet,  hundreds  of 
whom,  through  his  instrumentality,  were  brought  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  He  closed  his 
extensively  useful  and  amazingly  luminous  course  in  the 
Hvely  exercise  of  faith,  and  in  the  joyful  hope  of  a  happy 
immortality."  Equally  eminent  and  respected  were  An- 
drew Marshall,  of  Savannah,  and  Jacob  Walker,  of  Augusta. 
It  is  said  that  at  the  death  of  the  latter  "  the  whole  city 
of  Augusta  manifested  the  greatest  respect  and  sorrow, 
as  for  one  of  its  most  eminent  citizens." 

The  period  closed  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  greatest 
religious  awakenings  ever  known  in  Georgia.  Nearly  all 
the  Baptist  pastors  turned  evangelists,  and  with  wonderful 
enthusiasm  covered  the  State  with  their  missionary  activ- 


332  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  ii. 

ity.  Churches  were  springing  up  everywhere,  and  the 
denomination  was  ready  to  enter  at  once  upon  the  great 
advance  movement  to  which  Providence  was  pointing  by 
the  conversion  of  Judson  and  Rice. 

The  six  churches  of  i  784  had  a  membership  of  428.  In 
1792  there  were  50  churches  and  321 1  members.  The 
number  of  ministers  reported  was  72.  This  inchides 
licentiates  or  helpers,  and  shows  a  state  of  great  religious 
activity  in  the  churches. 

In  181 3  there  were  five  Associations  (the  Ocmulgee,  not 
previously  mentioned,  was  formed  in  18 10  by  a  further 
division  of  the  Georgia),  containing  164  churches  and 
15,755  members. 


CHAPTER   V. 

KENTUCKY,    TENNESSEE,    OHIO,    INDIANA,    ILLINOIS, 
MISSOURI,    MISSISSIPPI,    AND    LOUISIANA.^ 

The  planting  of  Baptist  churches  in  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee was  virtually  an  extension  of  the  field  of  the  Bap- 
tists of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  As  these  new  and 
fertile  regions  were  opened  up  for  settlement  thousands  of 
Baptists  from  the  older  communities  were  among  the  pio- 
neers. Naturally  they  formed  churches  wherever  enough 
Baptists  were  within  reach  of  one  another. 

Among  the  earliest  explorers  of  Kentucky  were  Daniel 
Boone  and  his  brother.  Squire  Boone.  The  latter  was  a 
Baptist,  as  were  also  several  members  of  the  great  pioneer's 
family.  Boonesborough  was  settled  in  1775,  the  Boones 
having  been  joined  by  Colonel  Richard  Calloway  and  his 
family,  likewise  Baptists.  Early  in  1776  Thomas  Tinsley 
and  William  Hickman,  Baptist  ministers,  settled  at  Har- 
rodsburg.  Within  the  next  few  years  a  large  number  of 
Baptists  came  into  this  land  of  promise,  among  them  Gen- 
eral Henry  Crist,  General  Aquila  Whitaker,  General  Joseph 
Lewis,  Colonel  Robert  Johnson,  Colonel  William  Bush, 
Hon.  James  Garrard,  Gabriel  Slaughter,  and  the  Clays. 
Most  of  these  titles  were  probably  gained  at  a  later  date. 
Several  other  Baptist  ministers  settled  in  the  new  territory 
in  I  779-80,  among  them  William  Marshall,  John  W'hitaker, 

1  Cf.  Benedict;  Paxton ;  "  Bapt.  Memorial"  (various  articles,  especially 
those  by  J.  M.  Peck) ;  and  Duncan. 

333 


334  '^t^E.    BAPTISTS.  [Per.  n. 

l)enjamin  Lynn,  John  Garrard,  and  Joseph  Barnett.  Gar- 
rard is  the  minister  who  came  to  Virginia  from  the  Phil- 
adelphia Association  about  1755  and  who  was  so  largely 
useful  in  building  up  the  churches  of  the  Ketokton  Asso- 
ciation. A  number  of  other  Virginia  ministers  visited 
Kentucky  at  this  time  and  sought  to  awaken  the  people 
to  a  sense  of  their  obligation  to  attend  to  the  gathering  of 
churches  and  the  evangelization  of  the  country.  But  the 
people  were  so  taken  up  with  clearing  the  ground  and 
protecting  themselves  from  Indians  that  they  w^ere  little 
disposed  to  enter  upon  aggressive  Christian  work. 

The  first  Baptist  church  organized  was  that  still  known 
as  Severn's  Valley  (June,  i  781).  Joseph  Barnett  and  John 
Garrard  were  the  ministers  present.  In  July  following  the 
same  ministers  constituted  the  Cedar  Creek  church,  forty 
miles  southeast  of  Louisville.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same 
year  a  church,  with  its  pastor,  Lewis  Craig,  removed  from 
Spottsylvania  County,  Va.,  and  settled  on  Gilbert's  Creek. 
The  Forks  of  Dix  Creek  church  was  organized  in  1782; 
Providence,  South  Elkhorn,  and  Gilbert's  Creek  (Separate 
Baptist)  in  i  783  ;  and  Beargrass  in  1  784.  In  i  785  there 
was  a  revival  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  nine  ad- 
ditional churches.  Most  of  the  Baptist  immigrants  were 
from  Virginia,  but  a  few  families  came  from  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  and  the  Carolinas. 

Three  Associations  were  formed  in  i  785 — two  of  Regular 
Baptists,  Elkhorn  and  Salem ;  and  one  of  Separate  Bap- 
tists, the  South  Kentucky.  From  this  time  onward  the 
growth  of  the  denomination,  like  the  growth  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  territory,  was  exceedingly  rapid.  About  a 
fourth  of  the  Baptists  of  Virginia  found  new  homes  in 
Kentucky. 

In  I  793  an  effort  was  made  to  bring  about  an  amalgama- 
tion of  Regular  and  Separate  Baptists,  such  as  had  already 


CiiAr.  v.]  KEGi^LAKS  AXD   SEPARATES.  335 

taken  place  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  But  the  Reg- 
ulars were  probably  rather  extreme  in  their  Calvinism  and 
inclined  to  lay  too  much  stress  on  the  acceptance  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith,  while  the  Separates  had  an  aversion 
for  confessions  and  some  of  them  a  leaning  toward  Armin- 
ianism.  Those  churches  of  both  parties  that  were  eager 
for  union  withdrew  and  formed  an  Association  of  "  United 
Baptists  "  (the  Tate's  Creek). 

From  I  793  to  the  end  of  the  century  was  a  period  of 
spiritual  dearth.  Infidelity  and  immorality  increased  at 
an  alarming  rate.  But  in  1800  and  the  following  years 
the  entire  State  was  stirred  by  the  greatest  revival  in  its 
history.  Presbyterians  and  Methodists  were  by  this  time 
on  the  field,  and  these  participated  in  the  Great  Awaken- 
ing. Phenomena  of  the  most  distressing  kind  attended 
the  re\ival  meetings  of  all  denominations.  Peculiar  nerv- 
ous conditions  accompanied  strong  religious  conviction. 
What  was  ktiown  as  the  "jerks"  was  common,  and  those 
awakened  sometimes  barked  and  sometimes  danced.  The 
Baptist  membership  in  the  State  was  doubled  by  this 
awakening. 

As  Regulars  and  Separates  alike  participated  in  this 
movement  they  were  naturally  drawn  nearer  to  each  other 
in  sympathy  and  lo\-e,  and  terms  of  union  were  finally 
agreed  upon  in  iSoi.  The  short  confession  that  formed 
the  basis  of  union  asserts  the  final  perseverance  of  the 
saints  and  allows  the  preaching  of  the  doctrine  that  Christ 
tasted  death  for  every  man.  Most  of  the  articles  are  so 
general  that  Arminians  and  Calvinists  might  agree  in  ac- 
cepting them.  Freedom  is  allowed  to  each  party  to  con- 
tinue its  associational  and  church  arrangements. 

John  Gano,  who  in  his  early  ministry  had  labored  with 
such  zeal  and  success  in  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia,  and 
since  i  762  had  been  pastor  of  the  V'wsi  Church,  New  York, 


336  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

removed  to  Kentucky  in  i  788,  somewhat  broken  in  health, 
but  ready  for  years  of  noble  service.      He  died  in  1804. 

In  1784  there  were  only  6  churches  in  the  State,  with  a 
membership  of  something  over  400 ;  by  i  792  the  number 
of  churches  had  increased  to  42  and  that  of  members  to 
3095  ;  by  181 2  the  churches  numbered  285  and  the  mem- 
bers 22,694.  The  population,  which  in  1775  was  almost 
nothing,  had  increased  to  T^fiT]  by  1790,  and  by  1810  to 
406,511. 

The  early  Baptists  of  Kentucky  were,  as  a  rule,  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  prejudice  against  educated  and  sala- 
ried ministers.  The  experience  of  early  Virginia  Baptists 
in  being  taxed  for  the  support  of  irreligious  and  vicious 
clergymen,  whose  only  recommendation  was  that  they  had 
received  a  university  education,  led  them  to  look  with  sus- 
picion upon  the  highly  educated  and  to  prefer  a  ministry 
from  the  ranks  of  the  people  earning  a  support  by  follow- 
ing secular  pursuits.  These  sentiments  becaiiie  intensified 
in  Kentucky,  where  for  a  long  time  educational  facilities 
were  almost  wanting. 

There  were  Baptists  in  Eastern  Tennessee  soon  after 
1765,  and  two  churches  are  said  to  have  been  organized. 
They  were  driven  out  by  the  Indians  in  1774.  No  par- 
ticulars have  been  preserved.  About  i  780  a  large  number 
of  Baptists,  with  eight  or  ten  ministers,  removed  from 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  to  the  Holston  country  in 
Eastern  Tennessee.  A  colony  from  the  old  Sandy  Creek 
church  of  North  Carolina  settled  on  Boone's  Creek.  Five 
or  six  churches  having  been  gathered  by  1781,  it  was  ar- 
ranged that  they  should  meet  together  twice  a  year  in 
Conference.  They  remained  members  of  the  Sandy  Creek 
Association  until  i  786,  when  it  was  thought  best  to  organ- 
ize the  Holston  Association.  Most  of  these  Baptists  were 
of  the  Separate  variety,  but  there  was  no  doctrinal  discord 


Chap,  v.]  MIDDLE    TENNESSEE.  337 

and  the  Philadelphia  Confession  was  adopted.  By  1802, 
as  a  result  of  further  immigration  and  especially  of  the 
great  revival  of  the  preceding  two  years,  the  Association 
had  added  twenty-nine  churches  to  its  original  seven,  and 
had  a  membership  of  about  twenty-five  hundred.  The 
Tennessee  Association  was  formed  in  1803  by  a  division 
of  the  Holston. 

The  Cumberland  region  (Middle  Tennessee)  began  to  be 
settled  in  i  780.  It  is  probable  that  some  Baptists  were  in 
the  first  company  of  three  hundred  led  by  General  James 
Robertson.  In  1791  Ambrose  Dudley  and  John  Taylor, 
of  Kentucky,  traveled  two  hundred  miles  through  the 
wilderness  to  aid  in  organizing  the  Tennessee  church  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Sulphur  Fork  River.  It  united  with  the 
Elkhorn  Association.  There  was  no  other  church  within 
one  hundred  miles  of  the  Tennessee  until  the  White's 
Creek  church  was  formed  in  1794.  A  church  organized 
in  North  Carolina  was  transplanted  to  the  head  of  the 
Sulphur  Fork  in  1795.  Their  pastor  was  Joseph  Dorris, 
who  became  the  cause  of  much  trouble  to  the  church  and 
the  Association.  Two  other  churches  had  "been  formed 
by  1796,  one  of  them  out  of  fragments  of  an  older  church 
scattered  by  the  Indians  in  1774.  The  five  united  in 
forming  the  Mero  Association  in  1797.  Early  in  the 
present  century  charges  against  the  character  of  Dorris 
were  brought  before  the  Association.  After  man}^  efforts 
to  solve  the  difficulties  involved  without  a  dix'ision,  the 
Association  was  disbanded  and  those  who  adhered  to 
Dorris  were  left  out  of  the  new  Cumberland  Association 
that  took  its  place  (1803).  This  region  seems  to  have 
shared  largely  in  the  great  revival  of  the  early  part  of  the 
century.  By  1806  the  Cumberland  Association  had  in- 
creased to  thirty-nine  churches,  and  its  territory  had  be- 
come so  extensive  that  a  division  was  thoug^ht  ad\-isable. 


338  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

The  Red  River  Association  was  the  result.  A  third  As- 
sociation, the  Concord,  was  formed  in  1810  by  a  further 
division  of  the  Cumberland.  It  prospered  greatly  for  a 
time,  nearly  nine  hundred  having  been  added  to  its  mem- 
bership in  1 81 2;  but  serious  divisions  on  doctrine  almost 
wrecked  it  a  few  years  later.  The  Elk  River  Association 
was  formed  in  1806  and  had  grown  to  be  a  vigorous  body 
by  1812. 

The  economic  and  social  conditions  were  much  the  same 
in  Tennessee  as  in  Kentucky.  The  land  was  fertile,  but 
had  to  be  laboriously  brought  into  cultivation,  and  Indians 
were  numerous  and  ferocious.  Educational  advantages 
were  of  the  poorest,  and  the  same  causes  were  operative 
here  as  in  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina  to 
create  a  deep-seated  aversion  to  educated  and  salaried 
ministers.  The  missionary  and  educational  movement  of 
the  next  period  was  to  find  in  Tennessee  some  of  its  most 
determined  opponents. 

The  growth  of  the  denomination  in  Tennessee  during 
this  period  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  statistics: 
In  1784  there  were  6  churches,  with  less  than  400  mem- 
bers; in  1792  there  were  21  churches  and  about  900  mem- 
bers; by  181 2  the  churches  had  increased  to  156  and  the 
membership  to  11,325. 

Ohio  was  settled  late  in  the  present  period,  but  Baptists 
were  early  on  the  ground.  In  1789  a  number  of  Baptist 
families  from  Coimecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey 
formed  a  settlement  on  the  Little  Miami  at  Columbia,  now 
within  the  hmits  of  Cincinnati.  Among  these  were  Isaac 
Ferris,  from  Connecticut,  Judge  Goforth  and  General  John 
Gano,  from  New  York,  and  Benjamin  and  Elijah  Stites, 
from  New  Jersey.  Gano  was  a  son  of  the  famous  preacher. 
There  was  no  minister  in  the  company,  but  the  brethren 
took  turns  in  conducting  the  services.      In  1790  Stephen 


Chap,  v.]  A    GERMAN  CHURCH.  339 

Gano,  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Providence,  and  brother 
of  the  general,  visited  the  settlement,  baptized  three  con- 
verts, and  assisted  in  organizing  the  first  evangelical  church 
north  of  the  Ohio  River.  The  first  pastor  of  the  church 
was  John  Smith,  who  afterward  became  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Senate.  By  1797  three  other  churches  had 
sprung  up  in  the  neighborhood :  Miami  Island,  Carpenter's 
Run,  and  Clear  Creek.  These  four  united  at  this  time  in 
forming  the  Miami  Association.  Turtle  Creek  and  Little 
Prairie  churches  soon  joined  the  Association.  The  other 
pastors  were  Peter  Smith,  James  Lee,  and  Daniel  Clarke. 
Joshua  Carman  and  Josiah  Dodge,  from  Kentucky,  were 
present  when  the  Association  was  formed.  The  ministry 
was  soon  reinforced  by  the  accession  of  John  Sutton, 
Joshua  Carman,  and  John  Mason,  the  two  last  from  Ken- 
tucky. As  the  Columbia  church  became  speedily  the 
mother  of  churches,  so  the  Miami  Association  became  the 
mother  of  Associations. 

In  1 80 1  a  Baptist  church  of  German  extraction  removed 
from  Shenandoah  County,  Va.,  to  the  Scioto  River  district 
in  Ohio.  They  settled  at  Pleasant  Run,  near  Lancaster. 
In  1809  the  church  had  three  ministers,  named  Stites, 
Comer,  and  Cofman,  who  could  conduct  services  in  both 
German  and  English.  At  about  the  same  date  a  company 
of  Baptists  from  New  England  formed  a  church  at  Ames. 
This  church  united  with  the  Pleasant  Run  (1805)  in  form- 
ing the  Scioto  Association. 

The  remaining  Associations  formed  during  this  period 
are  the  Muskingum  (181 1)  and  the  Mad  River  (1812). 
These  resulted  from  a  subdivision  of  the  Miami,  whose 
churches  had  become  too  numerous  and  widespread  con- 
veniently to  assemble. 

The 'Baptist  life  of  Ohio  was  more  heterogeneous  than 
that  in   most  of  the  other  newly  opened  territories,  and 


340  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

considerable  discord  was  to  be  expected.  The  advance 
movement  of  the  succeeding  period  was  to  meet  with  less 
opposition  here  than  in  some  of  the  States.  This  was  due 
in  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  fact  that  in  the  settlement  of  the 
country  the  New  England  and  Middle  States  were  in  the 
ascendency. 

In  1790  Ohio  had  2  Baptist  churches  and  64  members; 
in  1 8 12,  60  churches  and  2400  members  were  reported. 

Indiana  received  its  earliest  Baptist  population  from 
Kentucky  and  Ohio  about  1797.  A  church,  afterward 
known  as  the  Silver  Creek,  was  organized  about  i  798  (so 
"  Bapt.  Encyc,"  vol.  i.,  p.  575  ;  but  Peck,  in  Benedict,  864, 
gives  1802).  The  minister  to  whose  labors  the  gathering 
of  the  church  was  due  was  Isaac  Edwards,  a  native  of 
New  Jersey.  William  McCoy,  of  Kentucky,  had  previ- 
ously given  much  labor  to  this  region.  The  son  of  the 
latter,  Isaac  McCoy,  was  one  of  the  most  useful  ministers 
in  Indiana  during  the  latter  part  of  this  period  and  the 
early  years  of  the  next. 

The  first  churches  formed  in  the  Wabash  re<^ion  were 
the  Wabash  and  the  Bethel  (1806).  The  Patoka  and  the 
Salem  churches  followed  in  1808,  and  the  Maria  Creek  in 
1809.  The  Wabash  District  Association  was  organized  in 
1808.  The  churches  on  the  Whitewater  had  at  first  held 
associational  relations  with  the  Miami  Association  of  Ohio, 
In  1809  the  Whitewater  Association  was  formed.  The 
Silver  Creek  Association  began  its  career  in  1812  with 
eight  churches  and  a  membership  of  two  hundred  and 
seventy.  There  was  little  to  distinguish  the  early  In- 
diana Baptists  from  those  of  Kentucky  and  Ohio,  from 
whom  they  were  chiefly  derived.  The  modern  move- 
ment, with  its  missions,  education,  Sunda}'-schools,  etc., 
was  to  find  some  of  its  most  inveterate  opponents  in  this 
new  State. 


C'hai".  v.]  /LLINOIS.  341 

In  1812  there  were  in  the  whole  of  Indiana  29  churches 
and  I  726  members. 

lUinois  was  not  opened  to  settlement  till  after  1778. 
The  first  Protestant  settlers  are  said  to  have  been  Baptists. 
In  1786  a  number  of  families  from  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
occupied  the  American  Bottom  and  the  hill-country  of 
Monroe  County.  It  appears  that  none  of  these  had  been 
members  of  Baptist  churches,  but  they  observed  the  Lord's 
Day,  trained  their  children,  and  held  meetings  for  worship. 
In  1787,  and  afterward,  they  were  visited  by  James  Smith, 
a  Kentucky  Baptist  m/nister,  w^ho  did  good  service.  On 
one  of  his  visits  he  was  captured  by  Indians  and  had  to 
be  ransomed  at  heavy  cost.  In  1 794  Josiah  Dodge,  of 
Kentucky,  visited  Illinois  and  baptized  a  number  of  per- 
sons, but  organized  no  church.  The  first  church  in  this 
territory  was  constituted  in  1 796  by  David  Badgeley, 
who  had  just  removed  with  his  family  from  Virginia.  It 
was  called  the  New  Design  church  and  had  twenty-eight 
constituent  members.  Fifteen  of  these  had  just  been  bap- 
tized as  a  result  of  evangelistic  meetings,  in  which  Badgeley 
had  been  assisted  by  Joseph  Chance. 

By  1807  four  other  churches  had  been  organized — the 
Mississippi  Bottom,  the  Richland,  the  Wood  River,  and 
the  Silver  Creek.  At  this  time  they  united  in  forming 
the  Illinois  Union  Association.  Two  years  later  diffi- 
culties arose  with  reference  to  correspondence  with  Ken- 
tucky Associations  in  which  slavery  prevailed.  Those 
opposed  to  holding  fellowship  with  slave-holders  with- 
drew, adopted  the  designation  "  Friends  to  Humanity," 
and  organized  the  South  District  Association  on  an  anti- 
slavery  basis. 

The  Wabash  District  Association  (1809)  contained  a 
number  of  Illinois  churches  along  with  those  belonging  to 
Indiana,  and  later  the  Illinois  element  preponderated. 


342  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

In  i8i2  there  were  in  Illinois  7  churches  and  153  mem- 
bers. 

Missouri  was  the  name  given  in  1812  to  the  large  ter- 
ritory, previously  known  as  Upper  Louisiana,  ceded  by 
France  to  the  United  States  in  1804.  It  embraced  what 
has  been  subdivided  into  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Iowa,  Ne- 
braska, and  much  besides.  During  the  Spanish  and  French 
regime  Roman  Catholicism  was  the  only  form  of  Christian- 
ity tolerated  ;  but  a  few  Protestants  had  slipped  in  with  the 
connivance  of  the  authorities.  Among  these  were  a  num- 
ber of  Baptists.  In  fact.  Baptists  seem  to  have  been  the 
very  first  to  carry  evangelical  religion  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Thomas  Bull,  his  wife,  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Lee, 
settled  in  Cape  Girardeau  County  in  1796.  In  1797  Enos 
Randal  and  wife  and  Mrs.  Abernathy  made  their  homes  a 
few  miles  south  of  Jackson.  No  Baptist  minister  visited 
the  region  until  i  799,  when  Thomas  Johnson,  of  Georgia, 
who  had  devoted  much  of  his  life  to  mission  work  among 
the  Cherokee  Indians,  regardless  of  the  law  preached  to 
small  but  eager  gatherings.  He  baptized  a  Mrs.  Ballou 
and  gave  her  a  certificate  of  baptism.  After  1804  there 
was  a  great  influx  of  population  from  the  southwestern 
States  and  Territories.  In  1805  David  Green,  a  Virginian 
who  had  labored  for  years  in  the  Carolinas  and  Kentucky, 
visited  the  Baptist  settlements  of  Missouri,  but  soon  after- 
ward returned  to  Kentucky.  A  strong  conviction  having 
seized  him  that  he  ought  to  minister  to  the  neglected 
Missouri  settlers,  he  removed  to  Cape  Girardeau  County  and 
during  the  few  years  that  remained  to  him  (he  died  in 
1809)  was  instrumental  in  laying  the  foundations  for  Bap- 
tist work.  The  Tywappity  Bottom  church,  with  eight  or 
ten  members,  was  constituted  by  him  in  1805,  and  the 
Bethel  church,  with  fifteen  members,  in  1806.  The  former 
became  extinct  after  a  few  years ;  the  latter  became  the 


Chap,  v.]  MISSOURI.  343 

fruitful  mother  of  churches.  The  Bethel  chapel  was  the 
first  evangelical  place  of  worship  erected  in  Missouri. 
The  church  in  Jackson  is  properly  the  continuation  of  the 
old  Bethel  church,  which  was  a  mile  and  a  half  away.  The 
remnant,  after  the  withdrawal  of  members  to  form  the  Jack- 
son and  other  churches,  became  anti-missionary  and  died. 
Among  the  earliest  settlers  of  the  St.  Louis  district 
(1796-97)  were  several  of  the  children  and  other  relatives 
of  Daniel  Boone,  who  were  Baptists.  In  1803  (or  1804) 
Thomas  R.  Musick,  a  Virginian  Baptist  minister,  removed 
with  a  large  party  of  relatives  and  others  to  this  region. 
Three  settlements  were  formed :  one  near  the  Spanish 
Pond,  another  between  Bridgeton  and  Florissant,  and  a 
third  on  Fee  Fee's  Creek.  Elder  Musick  was  the  first 
Regular  Baptist  minister  to  settle  in  the  St.  Louis  district. 
He  had  visited  Missouri  as  early  as  1801,  being  at  that 
time  resident  in  Kentucky.  He  was  a  man  full  of  zeal  and 
good  works.  From  the  fact  that  he  spent  considerable 
time  in  teaching  it  may  be  inferred  that  he  had  a  fair  edu- 
cation. The  Fee  Fee's  Creek  church  was  organized  under 
his  ministry  in  1807,  and  the  Cold  Water  church  in  1809. 
Shortly  before  Musick's  first  visit  to  Missouri  that  some- 
what eccentric  but  devoted  and  indefatigable  evangelist, 
John  Clark,  visited  the  St.  Louis  district  (1798).  Clark 
was  a  well-educated  Scotchman  (born  November,  1758). 
Removing  to  Georgia  about  1 786,  he  was  converted  in 
Methodist  meetings,  and  in  1791  was  received  on  trial  as 
a  preacher.  Tn  i  794  he  was  ordained  deacon.  Becom- 
ing dissatisfied  with  Methodist  church  polity  he  severed 
his  connection  with  the  denomination  and  in  i  796  left  on 
foot  for  Kentucky.  From  Kentucky  he  went  to  Illinois, 
everywhere  preaching  the  word.  He  frequently  visited 
Missouri.  About  1803  he  had  become  convinced  that 
believers  are  the  only  proper  subjects  of  baptism  and  that 


344  ^^^^   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

immersion  is  the  only  authorized  mode.  A  hke-minded 
independent  Methodist  brother  and  he  immersed  each 
other  and  thus  became  independent  Baptists.  He  trav- 
eled almost  constantly,  nearly  always  on  foot.  Having 
been  presented  with  a  horse  by  well-disposed  friends,  he 
soon  asked  to  be  relieved  of  it.  To  meet  his  appoint- 
ments he  would  wade  and  swim  sw^oUen  streams.  No 
sort  of  weather  was  a  bar  to  his  progress.  He  formed  a 
number  of  societies  during  the  last  decade  of  this  period 
which  afterward  became  Baptist. 

By  1812  there  were  in  Missouri  7  Baptist  churches,  with 
a  membership  of  192.  No  Association  had  as  yet  been 
formed. 

The  territory  now  comprised  in  Mississippi  received  its 
first  Baptist  settlers  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  in 
1780:  In  the  same  year  the  Salem  church  on  Cole's 
Creek,  southeast  of  Natchez,  was  constituted.  Among 
these  early  settlers  were  the  large  Curtis  family  and  their 
connections.  They  had  been  driven  from  their  homes  by 
the  British  and  their  loyalist  neighbors,  and  their  journey 
had  been  most  tiifficult  and  perilous.  Richard  Curtis,  Jr., 
was  a  licensed  preacher,  and  with  considerable  misgiving 
administered  the  ordinances.  John  and  Jacob  Stampley 
both  became  ministers. 

Among  the  early  converts  was  a  Spanish  Catholic, 
Stephen  d'Alvoy.  The  Spanish  authorities  made  no  seri- 
ous efforts  to  interfere  with  the  Baptists  until  1 793-94, 
when,  owing  to  somewhat  imprudent  denunciations  of 
Roman  Catholicism  on  the  part  of  some  of  their  leaders, 
Curtis  was  arrested  and  brought  before  the  Spanish  com- 
mandant. He  was  dismissed  with  the  threat  of  deporta- 
tion of  himself  and  other  leaders  to  the  mines  of  Mexico 
in  case  they  should  persist  in  violating  the  law.  In  i  795 
it  was  ordered  that  "  if  nine  persons  were  found  worship- 


Chap,  v.]  MISSISSIPPI  AXD  LOUISIANA.  345 

ing  together,  except  according  to  the  forms  of  the  Cathohc 
Church,  they  should  suffer  imprisonment."  An  effort  was 
made  in  1795  to  arrest  Curtis  and  D'Alvoy,  but  they  es- 
caped to  South  Carolina,  where  they  remained  about  two 
and  a  half  years,  and  where  Curtis  was  ordained.  Other 
Baptists  were  imprisoned  and  otherwise  maltreated.  After 
Curtis's  departure  the  field  was  visited  by  Elder  Mulkey 
(probably  the  noted  Philip  Mulkey,  of  North  Carolina). 
An  effort  of  the  authorities  to  arrest  him  led  to  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  congregation,  who  armed  themselves 
and  proceeded  to  the  fort  to  demand  immunity  from 
persecution. 

The  territory  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  in  1797. 
Curtis  returned  to  his  church,  and  thenceforward  the  work 
advanced  without  civil  interference.  In  1798  a  second 
church  was  formed  on  the  Buffalo.  By  1806  four  more 
churches  had  been  constituted,  and  the  six  united  in  form- 
ing the  Mississippi  Baptist  Association.  Population  flowed 
in  rapidly  from  this  time  onward,  and  the  Baptist  cause 
was  greatly  strengthened.  Among  the  Baptist  immigrants 
of  the  early  years  of  the  present  century  were  Thomas 
Mercer  and  David  Cooper. 

By  1812  the  number  of  churches  had  increased  to  17 
and  the  number  of  members  to  764. 

Louisiana  Baptists  are  closely  related  to  those  of  Mis- 
sissippi. The  Mississippi  Baptist  settlements  mentioned 
above  were  contiguous  to  the  Louisiana  border,  and  when 
a  number  of  Baptists  moved  into  Louisiana  they  were  vis- 
ited by  the  ministers  of  Mississippi.  Bailey  E.  Chaney 
removed  with  his  family  from  Cole's  Creek,  Miss.,  to  East 
Feliciana  Parish,  La.,  in  1798,  and  soon  began  to  preach. 
He  was  arrested,  and  released  on  his  promise  to  cease 
preaching  in  that  jurisdiction.  He  seems  to  have  re- 
turned to  Mississippi.      Ezra  Courtney,  who  had  removed 


346  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  ii. 

from  South  Carolina  to  Mississippi  in  1802  and  had  settled 
near  the  Louisiana  border,  besides  founding  a  church  in 
Mississippi,  ministered  to  a  company  of  South  Carolina 
Baptists  who  had  settled  about  nine  miles  from  Baton 
Rouge.  He  was  threatened  with  imprisonment,  but 
through  the  favor  of  the  alcalde,  whose  friendship  he 
won,  he  was  enabled  to  continue  his  work.  In  neither  of 
these  localities  was  a  church  constituted  until  after  18 13. 
The  first  church  formed  in  Louisiana  was  on  Ba}-ou  Chicot 
in  1812.  It  had  been  gathered  by  the  labors  of  Joseph 
Willis,  a  mulatto,  who  had  long  been  one  of  the  leading 
Baptist  ministers  in  Mississippi  and  had  labored  in  close 
association  with  Richard  Curtis.  In  181 3  the  Mount  Nebo 
and  Peniel  churches  on  the  Pearl  River  were  constituted 
as  a  result  of  the  labors  of  some  young  evangelists  from 
Mississippi.  These  churches  united  with  the  Mississippi 
Association  soon  after  their  formation. 

In  181 3  there  were  in  Louisiana  3  churches,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  130. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

STRUGGLES   FOR    CIVIL   AND    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY    IN 
NEW    ENGLAND. 1 

The  disabilities  under  which  Baptists  labored  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  during  this  period  have  been 
sufficiently  noticed  in  earlier  chapters.  The  new  charter 
of  Massachusetts  granted  by  William  and  Mary  in  1691 
provided  for  "  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  worship  of  God 
to  all  Christians,  except  Papists,  inhabiting  or  which  shall 
inhabit  or  be  resident  within  our  said  province  or  terri- 
tory." By  a  strange  perversion  this  seems  to  have  been 
taken  to  mean  that  the  General  Court  might  encourage 
and  protect  the  religion  of  the  majority.  Until  1728  Bap- 
tists were  regularly  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  churches 
of  the  standing  order.  An  exception  was  made  in  the  case 
of  Boston  and  a  few  other  towns.  On  their  refusal  to  pay 
such  taxes  they  were  in  many  cases  imprisoned  and  their 
goods  distrained  and  sacrificed.  Many  Baptists  had  con- 
scientious scruples  against  so  far  acquiescing  in  an  iniqui- 
tous arrangement  as  would  be  involved  in  voluntary  pay- 
ment, and  preferred  loss  and  suffering  to  compliance.  The 
exemption  act  of  1728,  renewed  and  modified  from  time 
to  time,  has  already  been  quoted.  As  the  exemption  laws 
required  the  annual  presentation  before  a  specified  date  of 
formally  prepared  lists  certified  by  particular  classes  of 
persons,  and  as  no  penalties  attached  to  failure  to  carry 

1  Cf.  Backus,  "Hist."  and  "Tracts";  Hovey;  Guild,  "Smith"  and 
"  Manning";  Barrage;  Curtis;  and  Armitage. 

347 


348  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

out  the  provisions  of  the  law  on  the  part  of  the  local 
officials,  the  spirit  of  the  law  was  no  doubt  frequently 
violated  and  Baptists  deprived  of  the  relief  intended. 

The  Separate  Baptists  were  more  strenuous  in  insisting 
upon  their  rights  under  the  charter  than  were  those  of  the 
old  order.  One  of  the  chief  objects  in  organizing  the  War- 
ren Association  in  1767  was  to  promote  concerted  denomi- 
national action  in  the  struggle  for  religious  freedom. 

The  records  of  the  Warren  Association  for  1 769  state 
that  "  many  letters  from  the  churches  mentioned  grievous 
oppressions  and  persecutions  from  the  standing  order; 
especially  the  one  from  Ashfield,  where  religious  tyranny 
had  been  carried  to  great  lengths."  A  committee  was 
appointed,  consisting  of  Backus  and  others,  *to  draft  a 
petition  for  redress  to  the  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 
courts,  another  committee  to  present  the  petition,  and  a 
third  to  collect  well-authenticated  cases  of  oppression 
under  the  laws.  The  petitions  were  promptly  presented, 
but  proved  ineffective.  The  Committee  of  Grievances 
labored  with  zeal  to  ascertain  the  exact  truth  in  the  cases 
that  came  to  their  attention. 

To  further  their  work  of  collecting  facts,  and  doubtless 
to  forewarn  the  authorities  that  a  determined  effort  was 
about  to  be  made  for  religious  equality,  an  advertisement 
was  inserted  in  the  Boston  "  Evening  Post  "  of  August  30, 
1770.  After  reminding  the  Baptists  of  the  persecutions 
that  they  had  suffered  the  document  proceeds:  "You 
are  desired  to  collect  your  cases  of  suffering  and  have 
them  well  attested — such  as,  the  taxes  )'ou  ha\'e  paid  to 
build  meeting-houses,  to  settle  ministers  and  support  them, 
with  all  the  time,  money,  and  labor  you  have  lost  in  wait- 
ing on  courts,  feeing  lawyers,  etc.,  and  bring  or  send  such 
cases  to  the  Baptist  Association  to  be  holden  at  Belling- 
ham ;  when  measures  will  be  resolutely  adopted  for  ob- 


Chap.  VI.]  A    THREATENED   APPEAL.  349 

taining  redress  from  another  quarter  than  that  to  which 
repeated  appHcation  hath  been  made  unsuccessfully.  Nay, 
complaints,  however  just  and  grievous,  have  been  treated 
with  indifference,  and  scarcely,  if  at  all,  credited.  We 
deem  this  our  conduct  perfectly  justifiable;  and  hope  you 
will  pay  particular  regard  to  this  desire,  and  be  exact  in 
your  accounts." 

The  implied  determination  to  take  the  case  to  the  throne 
was  no  idle  threat.  This  course  had  been  determined  upon 
only  after  long-continued  efforts  at  home  had  failed  to  se- 
cure redress.  From  the  point  of  \iew  of  the  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut  authorities  nothing  could  be  more  inop- 
portune than  the  presentation  to  the  English  government 
of  such  a  bill  of  grievances  as  was  here  proposed.  The 
agitation  in  favor  of  colonial  resistance  to  the  taxes  that 
had  recently  been  imposed  by  the  British  government  had 
already  begun.  Taxation  without  representation  was  re- 
garded as  tyranny.  Baptists  claimed  that  the  taxes  im- 
posed upon  them  for  the  support  of  a  form  of  religion  in 
which  they  could  have  no  part  was  in  sheer  contradiction 
to  the  principle  involved  in  this  contention.  That  the  Bap- 
tists should  threaten  to  appeal  to  a  government  against 
which  their  fellow-colonists  were  preparing  to  rebel  was 
looked  upon  as  little  better  than  treason. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Association  in  September  follow- 
ing a  large  body  of  grievances  was  presented.  In  view  of 
these  it  was  unanimously  resolved  "  to  send  to  the  British 
court  for  help,  if  it  could  not  be  obtained  in  America." 
While  Baptists  were  as  strongly  opposed  as  any  to  the 
British  measures  that  resulted  in  the  Revolution,  they  had 
reluctantly  come  to  the  conclusion  that  as  a  last  resort  ap- 
peal to  Britain  would  be  justifiable.  In  pursuance  of  the 
object  of  the  above  resolution,  John  Davis,  pastor  of  the 
Second    Baptist    Church,   Boston,   was   appointed   by   the 


350  THE  BAPTISTS.  LI'kK.  ii. 

Association  to  use  his  best  endeavors,  with  the  advice  of 
the  committee,  to  obtain  a  full  deliverance  from  ministerial 
taxes.  Backus  was  one  of  the  most  laborious  and  useful 
members  of  the  committee.  Soon  after  the  associational 
meeting  a  petition  was  drafted  by  Stillman,  Smith,  and 
Davis,  on  behalf  of  the  Baptist  Committee  of  Grievances, 
and  presented  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Court.  The 
grievances  are  set  forth  in  a  strong,  businesslike  way.  A 
recent  resolution  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives "  that  no  taxation  can  be  equitable  where  such 
restraints  are  laid  upon  the  taxed  as  take  from  him  the 
liberty  of  giving  his  own  money  freely,"  is  quoted  in  sup- 
port of  the  Baptist  position  with  reference  to  ecclesiastical 
taxes.  The  Ashfield  case  is  given  as  one  of  the  most  no- 
torious examples  of  the  iniquitous  working  of  the  laws. 
In  I  761  a  Baptist  church  had  been  established  in  Hunts- 
town,  a  frontier  township  in  which  worship  had  for  years 
been  maintained  by  Chileab  Smith  and  his  family.  The 
church  was  regularly  constituted,  and  Ebenezer  Smith,  a 
son  of  Chileab,  became  pastor.  Of  the  nineteen  families 
in  the  township  only  five  were  opposed  to  Smith's  ordina- 
tion as  pastor.  In  the  Indian  war  the  Baptists  had  de- 
fended the  town  with  great  courage  and  success.  Soon 
after  the  war  the  families  opposed  to  the  Baptists,  having 
been  reinforced  by  the  incoming  of  others,  were  constituted 
a  Congregational  church,  settled  a  minister  with  the  pri\i- 
leges  of  the  first  minister  of  the  town,  voted  him  ;^ioo 
settlement  and  £6i\  a  year,  arranged  for  the  building  of  a 
meeting-house,  and  taxed  the  Baptists,  including  their 
minister,  for  a  proportionate  amount  of  the  expense.  To 
annul  the  claims  of  the  Baptists  to  be  the  first  church  or- 
ganized, and  so  entitled  to  exemption  from  taxes  for  the 
maintenance  of  pedobaptist  worship,  a  new  town  called 
Ashfield   was  incorporated   in   place   of   Huntstown.      To 


Chap,  vi.]  OPPRESS/OX  AT  ASIIFIELD.  351 

quote  from  the  petition  :  "  In  consequence  of  which  law, 
and  by  a  power  granted  in  the  same  to  the  proprietors  of 
Ashfield  aforesaid,  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  acres 
of  our  land  have  been  sold  to  build  and  remove  and  re- 
pair, when  moved,  a  meeting-house  in  which  we  have  no 
part,  and  to  settle  and  support  a  minister  whom  we  cannot 
hear.  The  lands  were  valued  at  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  pounds  eighteen  shillings,  .  .  .  and  were  sold  for 
nineteen  pounds  three  shillings;  so  that  our  loss  is  three 
hundred  and  forty-four  pounds  fifteen  shillings.  .  .  .  Part 
of  the  lands  aforesaid  belonged  to  the  Rev.  Ebenezer 
Smith,  a  regularly  ordained  Baptist  minister,  who,  together 
with  his  father  and  others,  their  brethren,  in  the  last  Indian 
war,  built  at  their  own  expense  a  fort  and  were  a  frontier; 
and  this  they  did  without  any  help  from  any  quarter ;  for 
which  we  beg  leave  to  say  that  they  deserve,  at  least,  the 
common  privileges  of  the  subjects  of  the  crown  of  England. 
Part  of  said  lands  had  been  laid  out  for  a  burying-place, 
and  they  have  taken  from  us  our  dead.  They  have  also 
sold  a  dwelling-house  and  orchard,  and  pulled  up  our 
apple-trees,  and  thrown  down  our  fences,  and  made  our 
fields  waste  places."  Complaint  is  also  made  of  the  law 
"  by  which  no  Baptist  can  avail  himself  even  of  that  law 
[the  exemption  law]  in  new-settled  towns;  and  we  are 
thereby  virtually  prevented  from  settling  in  such  towns." 
In  conclusion  the  petitioners  ask  the  court  to  repeal  the  law 
erecting  Ashfield  into  a  town,  to  restore  the  lands  taken 
from  Baptists,  to  give  them  damages  for  the  injuries  they 
have  been  made  to  suffer,  and  to  enable  Baptists  "  in 
different  parts  of  the  Province  to  recover  damages  for  the 
losses  they  have  been  made  to  sustain  on  religious  ac- 
count." They  ask  for  "perpetual  exemption  to  all  Bap- 
tists and  their  congregations  from  all  ministerial  rates 
whatsoever." 


352  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

In  response  to  this  petition  a  new  exemption  law  was 
enacted,  in  which  the  offensive  term  "  Anabaptist  "  gave 
place  to  "  antipedobaptist."  Certificates  of  being  "con- 
scientiously of  the  antipedobaptist  persuasion  "  were  to  be 
"  signed  by  three  or  more  principal  members  and  the  minis- 
ter, if  any  there  be."  The  last  clause  was  intended  to 
meet  cases  of  pastorless  churches,  whose  certificates  had 
been  held  to  be  invalid.  The  term  "  conscientiously  "  was 
strongly  objected  to,  as  it  gave  to  the  local  authorities  the 
right  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  consciences  of  professing 
Baptist  adherents  and  to  refuse  to  accept  the  certificates 
of  any  not  actually  members  of  Baptist  churches. 

The  committee  met  to  consider  the  revised  law  and 
unanimously  voted  it  unsatisfactory.  Some  time  before  the 
promulgation  of  the  new  act  the  Baptist  advertisement  re- 
ferred to  above  was  violently  attacked  in  the  newspapers, 
and  Davis  felt  called  upon  to  publish  a  full  exposure  of  the 
wrongs  that  had  been  committed  against  Baptists.  He 
was  shamelessly  maligned  by  the  press,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  make  him  odious  to  the  public.  Davis  was 
a  graduate  of  the  Philadelphia  College  and  is  highly  spoken 
of  by  his  contemporaries.  He  was  a  newcomer  in  New 
England  and  was  probably  driven  from  his  post  by  the 
violence  of  the  obloquy  to  which  he  was  exposed.  He 
died  shortly  after  leaving  Boston. 

At  the  session  of  the  Association  in  1772  Backus  was 
appointed  agent  in  place  of  Davis.  In  a  circular  to  the 
churches,  dated  May  5,  1773,  he  asked  the  churches  to 
consider  the  question  whether  it  would  not  be  better  for 
all  the  churches  to  refuse  to  comply  with  the  law  requiring 
certificates,  those  suffering  special  hardship  for  refusal  to 
be  assisted  by  such  as  enjoyed  immunity.  His  idea  was 
that  "  the  root  of  all  these  difficulties,  and  that  which  has 
done  amazing  mischief  in  our  land,  is  ci\il  rulers  assuming 


[Chap.  vi.  AA'   APPEAL   FOR   LIBERTY.  353 

a  power  to  make  any  laws  to  govern  ecclesiastical  afifairs, 
or  to  use  any  force  to  support  ministers."  He  was  of  the 
opinion  that  if  all  Baptists  should  refuse  compliance  with 
the  law,  its  enforcement  would  soon  become  so  odious 
that  it  would  be  abandoned,  and  that,  economically  con- 
sidered, it  would  soon  prove  to  be  the  least  expensive 
course.  The  matter  received  the  prayerful  consideration 
of  the  Association  at  its  next  meeting.  When  it  came  to 
a  vote,  "thirty-four  elders  and  brethren"  were  "against 
giving  any  more  certificates,  six  for  it,  and  three  at  a  loss 
how  to  act."  It  was  also  voted  that  an  appeal  to  the 
public,  a  draft  of  which  Backus  read  to  the  Association, 
should  be  completed,  examined  by  the  committee,  and 
published.  In  publishing  this  appeal  the  committee  were 
encouraged  by  "  several  members  of  both  houses  of  our 
great  General  Court."  The  hopefulness  of  the  committee 
at  this  time  is  thus  expressed  in  a  letter  written  by  Backus 
to  Dr.  Stennett,  of  London,  who,  along  with  Dr.  Llewelyn 
and  Mr.  Wallin,  w^as  confidential  counselor  and  agent  of 
the  New  England  Baptists.  After  stating  the  facts  given 
above,  he  proceeds  :  "  The  state  of  people's  minds  of  vari- 
ous ranks  through  New  England  is  such  that  I  cannot  but 
hope  to  obtain  our  freedom  without  a  necessity  of  appeal- 
ing to  his  Majesty.  The  use  of  force  in  religion  is  become 
odious  to  great  numbers  besides  our  own  denomination, 
and  that  is  increasing  very  fast  "  (Hovey,"  Life  and  Times 
of  I.  Backus,"  pp.   190  scq.). 

The  "  Appeal  to  the  Public  for  Religious  Liberty,  against 
the  Oppressions  of  the  Present  Day,"  published  toward  the 
close  of  1773,  sets  forth  in  a  masterly  manner  the  Baptist 
position  respecting  the  entire  separation  of  church  and 
state  and  absolute  liberty  of  conscience,  and  pleads  for  the 
abolition  of  the  grievances  that  are  fully  and  clearly  stated. 
The  reasons  of  the  Baptists  for  refusal  to  conform  to  the 


354  'J^^I^   BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  II. 

law  with  reference  to  certificates  are  thus  given  (pp.  43 
scq.):  "  I.  Because  the  very  nature  of  such  a  practice  im- 
plies an  acknowledgment  that  the  civil  power  has  the  right 
to  set  one  religious  sect  up  above  another,  else  why  need 
we  give  certificates  to  them  any  more  than  they  to  us? 
It  is  a  tacit  allowance  that  they  have  a  right  to  make  laws 
about  such  things,  which  we  believe  in  our  consciences 
they  have  not.  For,  2.  By  the  foregoing  address  to  our 
legislature,  and  their  committee's  report  thereon,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  they  claim  a  right  to  tax  us  from  r/^vV  obligation, 
as  being  the  representatives  of  the  people.  But  how  came 
a  civil  community  by  any  ecclesiastical  power?  how  came 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  to  have  a  right  to  govern  in 
Christ's  kingdom,  which  is  not  of  this  world?  3.  That 
constitution  not  only  emboldens  people  to  Judge  the  liberty 
of  other  men's  consciences,  and  has  carried  them  so  far  as 
to  tell  our  general  assembly  that  they  conceived  it  to  be  a 
duty  they  owed  to  God  and  their  country,  not  to  be  dis- 
pensed with,  to  lay  before  them  the  springs  of  their  neigh- 
bors' actions ;  but  it  also  requires  something  of  the  same 
nature  from  us.  Their  laws  require  us  annually  to  certify 
to  them  what  our  belief  is  concerning  the  conscience  of 
every  person  that  assembles  with  us,  as  the  condition  of 
their  being  exempted  from  taxes  to  other  worship.  And 
only  because  our  brethren  in  Bellingham  left  that  clause 
about  the  conscience  out  of  their  certificates  last  year,  a 
number  of  the  society  who  live  at  Mendon  were  lately 
taxed,  and  suffered  the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  to  uphold 
pedobaptist  worship.  4.  The  scheme  we  oppose  evidently 
tends  to  destroy  the  purity  and  life  of  religion;  for  the  in- 
s}Mred  apostle  assures  us  that  the  church  is  espoused  as  a 
chaste  virgin  to  Christ  and  is  obliged  to  be  subject  to  Jiini 
iu  everything,  as  a  true  wife  is  to  her  husband.  Now  the 
most  chaste  domestic  obedience  does  not  at  all  interfere 


Chai'.  VI.]  MASSACHUSETTS  PRAISES    TOLERATION.         355 

with  any  lawftil  subjection  to  civil  authority ;  but  for  a 
woman  to  admit  the  highest  ruler  in  a  nation  into  her 
husband's  place,  would  be  adultery  or  ivJiorcdoin,  and  how 
often  are  men's  inventions  about  worship  so  called  in  the 
sacred  oracles?  ...  5.  The  custom  which  they  want  us 
to  countenance  is  very  hurtful  to  civil  society ;  for  by  the 
law  of  Christ  every  man  is  not  only  allowed,  but  also  re- 
quired, to  judge  for  himself  concerning  the  circumstantials, 
as  well  as  the  essentials,  of  religion,  and  to  act  according 
to  the  fjill  persuasion  of  his  ozvii  mind;  and  he  contracts 
guilt  to  his  soul  if  he  does  the  contrary.  .  .  .  What  temp- 
tation then  does  it  lay  for  men  to  contract  such  guilt,  when 
temporal  advantages  are  annexed  to  one  persuasion,  and 
disadvantages  laid  upon  another?  i.e.,  in  plain  terms,  how 
does  it  tend  to  hypocrisy  and  lying?  than  which,  what  can 
be  worse  to  human  society?  Not  only  so,  but  coercive 
measures  about  religion  also  tend  to  provoke  to  emulation, 
wrath,  and  contention,  and  who  can  describe  all  the  mis- 
chiefs of  this  nature  that  such  measures  have  produced  in 
our  land?"  The  happy  effects  of  freedom  are  illustrated 
by  the  case  of  Boston,  and  a  letter  of  Massachusetts  Con- 
gregational ministers  to  Governor  Jenckes,  of  Rhode  Island, 
a  Baptist,  when  Congregationalists  were  seeking  (i  72 1)  "  to 
get  footing  in  the  town  of  Providence,"  is  quoted.  The 
letter  commends  the  "  hearty  union  and  good  affection  of 
all  pious  Protestants,"  and  expresses  the  hope  and  prayer 
"  that  ancient  matters  (that  had  acrimony  unhappily  in 
them)  may  be  buried  in  oblivion."  The  reply  of  the 
Providence  authorities  is  also  quoted,  in  which  recent  per- 
secutions of  Baptists  in  Massachusetts  are  referred  to  and 
rebuked,  and  in  which  the  happiness  of  the  Rhode  Island 
government  is  declared  to  consist  "  in  their  not  allowing 
societies  any  superiority  one  over  another;  but  each  so- 
ciety support  their  own  ministry  of  their  own  free  will,  and 


356  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

not  by  constraint  or  force  upon  any  man's  person  or  estate. 
But  the  contrary  that  takes  any  man's  estate  by  force  to 
mahitain  their  own  or  any  other  ministry,  it  serves  for 
nothing  but  to  provoke  to  wrath,  envy,  and  strife,  and  t]iis 
Xi'isdom  comet Ji  not  from  above,  but  is  earthly,  sensual,  and 
devilish.  .  .  .  We  say,  far  be  it  from  us  to  revenge  our- 
selves ;  or  to  deal  to  you  as  you  have  dealt  to  us,  but 
rather  say,  Father,  forgive  tJiem;  they  knoiv  not  what  they 
do.'' 

In  January,  1774,  Backus  addressed  a  letter  to  Samuel 
Adams,  a  foremost  opponent  of  the  British  policy  of  taxa- 
tion without  representation,  in  which  he  sought  to  show 
that  the  policy  of  Massachusetts  in  relation  to  the  Baptists 
is  open  to  precisely  the  same  objections,  and  asked  for  the 
use  of  his  influence  in  favor  of  the  repeal  of  all  legislation 
that  discriminated  against  Baptists.  A  number  of  fresh 
cases  of  oppression  under  the  law  had  recently  come  to 
the  notice  of  the  committee.  On  January  26,  1774, 
Backus,  as  agent  for  the  Baptist  churches,  addressed  a 
Memorial  and  Petition  to  the  Massachusetts  government, 
asking  for  the  liberation  of  Baptists  who  were  lying  in 
prison  for  conscience'  sake,  the  reparation  of  their  goods, 
and  legislation  to  obviate  the  recurrence  of  such  perse- 
cutions. 

A  law  more  favorable  to  the  Baptists  soon  afterward 
passed  both  houses  of  the  legislature,  but  in  consequence 
of  the  sudden  prorogation  of  the  court  it  failed  to  receive 
the  signature  of  the  governor. 

In  September,  1774,  delegates  from  twelve  provinces 
assembled  in  Congress  at  Philadelphia  with  a  view  to 
agreeing  on  concerted  resistance  to  Britain.  Backus  was 
urged  by  Manning,  Gano,  Van  Home,  and  Smith  to  pro- 
ceed to  Philadelphia  and  "  to  see  if  something  might  not 
be  done  to  obtain  and  secure  our  religious  liberties."      On 


Chap.  VI.]  CONFERENCE   IN  n/ILADELP/ILl.  357 

September  14th  he  was  appointed  by  the  Warren  Asso- 
ciation to  undertake  this  work.  A  number  of  brethren 
accompanied  him,  and  he  had  the  cooperation  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Association,  which  met  October  12th  and  appointed 
a  Committee  of  Grievances  to  correspond  with  that  of  the 
Warren  Association.  A  meeting  of  Baptist  representatives 
with  leading  New  England  statesmen  and  others  was  held 
on  October  14th.  The  principal  members  of  Congress  pres- 
ent were  Thomas  Cushing,  Samuel  Adams,  John  Adams, 
and  R.  T.  Paine,  of  Massachusetts ;  James  Kinzie,  of  New 
Jersey ;  Stephen  Hopkins  and  Samuel  Ward,  of  Rhode 
Island  ;  and  Joseph  Galloway  and  Thomas  Miflin,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  mayor  of  Philadelphia  and  several  prominent 
Quaker  gentlemen  were  active  participants  in  the  confer- 
ence. The  prominent  Baptists  present,  besides  Backus, 
were  Manning,  Gano,  Samuel  Jones,  William  Rogers,  and 
Morgan  Edwards.  President  Manning  opened  the  confer- 
ence and  read  a  memorial  that  had  been  drawn  up  for  the 
occasion.  The  memorial  begins :  "  It  has  been  said  by  a 
celebrated  writer  in  politics  that  but  two  things  were  worth 
contending  for, — Religion  and  Liberty.  For  the  latter  we 
are  at  present  nobly  exerting  ourselves  through  all  this 
extensive  continent;  and  surely  no  one  whose  bosom  feels 
the  patriot  glow  in  behalf  of  civil  liberty  can  remain  tor- 
pid to  the  more  ennobling  flame  of  Religious  Freedom. 
The  free  exercise  of  private  judgment,  and  the  unalienable 
rights  of  conscience,  are  of  too  high  a  rank  and  dignity  to 
be  subjected  to  the  decrees  of  councils,  or  the  imperfect 
laws  of  fallible  legislators.  The  merciful  Father  of  man- 
kind is  the  alone  Lord  of  conscience."  The  grievances  of 
Baptists  in  Massachusetts  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  ex- 
emption laws  to  afford  the  relief  needed  are  set  forth  as  in 
the  documents  above  referred  to.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
charter  is  infringed  by  the  refusal  to  Baptists  of  full  liberty 


358  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

of  conscience.  The  memorial  concludes :  "  Consistently 
with  the  principles  of  Christianity,  and  according  to  the 
dictates  of  Protestantism,  we  claim  and  expect  the  liberty 
of  worshiping  God  according  to  our  consciences,  not  being 
obliged  to  support  a  ministry  we  cannot  attend,  whilst  we 
demean  ourselves  as  faithful  subjects.  These  we  have  an 
undoubted  right  to,  as  men,  as  Christians,  and  by  charter 
as  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  Bay." 

The  Massachusetts  congressmen  sought  to  make  light 
of  the  restrictions  on  liberty  of  conscience  in  their  province. 
They  admitted  that  an  establishment  of  religion  existed, 
but  claimed  that  the  exemption  law  removed  any  just 
ground  of  complaint.  Samuel  Adams  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  not  the  Regular  Baptists  but  the  en- 
thusiasts of  the  New  Light  order  that  were  making  com- 
plaint. Backus  gave  the  facts  about  Ashfield,  and  stated 
that  he  could  not  conscientiously  give  in  the  certificates 
required  by  law.  After  a  four  hours'  session  the  confer- 
ence closed,  with  a  promise  on  the  part  of  the  Massachu- 
setts congressmen  to  do  what  they  could  for  the  relief  of 
the  Baptists;  but  John  Adams  is  said  to  have  remarked 
that  the  Baptists  might  as  well  expect  a  ch?nge  in  the 
solar  system  as  to  expect  that  the  Massachusetts  author- 
ities would  give  up  their  establishment. 

The  bold  and  uncompromising  spirit  in  which  the  Bap- 
tists pressed  their  claims  for  religious  liberty  at  Phila- 
delphia was  exceedingly  irritating  to  the  Massachusetts 
statesmen.  They  are  said  to  have  spread  the  report  that 
Backus  had  gone  to  Philadelphia  to  prevent  the  colonies 
from  uniting  in  resistance  to  Britain,  and  to  have  accused 
Baptists  of  bringing  imaginary  grievances  to  the  front  at 
a  highly  critical  time.  To  correct  the  imprcs.sion  that  the 
Baptists  of  New  England  were  indifferent  to  the  cause  of 
civil  liberty  and  that  they  were  contending  about  trifles, 


Chap.  VI.]  MANNING'S  MEMORIAL.  359 

Backus  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Congress  of  Massachu- 
setts, November  22,  1774.  After  reciting-  the  grievances 
he  proceeds:  "  Must  we  be  blamed  for  not  lying  still,  and 
thus  let  our  countrymen  trample  upon  our  rights,  and 
deny  us  that  very  liberty  that  they  are  ready  to  take  up 
arms  to  defend  for  themselves  ?  You  profess  to  exempt 
us  from  taxes  to  your  worship,  and  yet  tax  us  every  year. 
Great  complaints  have  been  made  about  a  tax  which  the 
British  Parliament  laid  upon  paper;  but  you  require  a 
paper  tax  of  us  annually.  That  which  has  made  the 
greatest  noise  is  a  tax  of  three  pence  a  pound  upon  tea; 
but  your  law  of  last  June  laid  a  tax  of  the  same  sum  every 
year  upon  the  Baptists  in  each  parish,  as  they  would  ex- 
pect to  defend  themselves  against  a  greater  one.  .  .  .  All 
America  are  alarmed  at  the  tea  tax  ;  though,  if  they  please, 
they  can  avoid  it  by  not  buying  the  tea ;  but  we  have  no 
such  liberty.  We  must  either  pay  the  little  tax,  or  else 
your  people  appear,  even  in  this  time  of  extremity,  deter- 
mined to  lay  the  great  one  upon  us.  But  these  lines  are 
to  let  you  know  that  we  are  determined  not  to  pay  either 
of  them ;  not  only  upon  your  principle  of  not  being  taxed 
where  we  are  not  represented,  but  also  because  we  dare 
not  render  that  homage  to  any  earthly  power  which  I  and 
many  of  my  brethren  are  fully  convinced  belongs  only  to 
God.  We  cannot  give  in  the  certificates  you  require, 
without  implicitl}^  allowing  to  men  that  authority  which 
we  belie\-e  in  our  consciences  belongs  only  to  God.  .  .  . 
If  any  ask  what  we  would  have,  we  answer:  Only  allow 
us  freely  to  enjoy  the  religious  liberty  that  they  do  in 
Boston,  and  we  ask  no  more." 

Some  members  of  the  Congress  were  for  ignoring  this 
letter,  but  Adams  was  apprehensive  lest  such  a  course 
should  cause  a  division  among  the  provinces.  Lack  of 
jurisdiction  in  such  matters  was  claimed,  and  Baptists  were 


360  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  11. 

politely  advised  to  lay  their  grievances  before  the  next 
General  Assembly.  In  view  of  this  failure  to  secure  the 
relief  contended  for,  the  Philadelphia  committee  advised, 
as  "  our  only  resource,"  that  application  be  made  "  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic."  "  This  channel,"  they  wrote, 
"  we  ought  ever  to  keep  open,  and  not  to  preclude  our- 
selves by  our  own  conduct  from  being  heard  there  with 
that  attention  and  favor  that  our  case  will  require.  Our 
conduct  ought  to  be  such  as  to  prevent  us,  on  the  one 
hand,  from  being  deemed  enemies  to  our  country;  and  to 
secure  to  us,  on  the  other,  a  favorable  reception  at  the 
throne,  if  it  should  be  necessary  to  apply  there  at  a  future 
day." 

Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  were  at  this  time  strongly 
averse  to  revolution,  and  the  tone  of  the  letter  from  which 
quotation  has  been  made  was  in  part  a  result  of  this 
sentiment. 

The  indefatigable  Backus  prepared  another  memorial  for 
the  General  Court,  which  met  in  September,  1775.  It  re- 
ceived the  very  careful  consideration  of  the  court.  Major 
Hawley,  a  plain-spoken  member,  told  the  court  that  the 
Baptists  had  been  ill  treated,  that  the  established  religion 
was  not  worth  a  groat,  and  he  wished  it  might  fall  to  the 
ground.  After  some  debate  the  memorial  was  referred  to 
a  committee  of  seven,  three  of  whom  were  Baptists.  Dr. 
Asaph  Fletcher,  one  of  the  Baptist  members,  was  author- 
ized by  the  court  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  redress  of  Bap- 
tist grievances.  It  was  proposed  that  the  Baptists  be  asked 
to  withdraw  their  memorial,  but  Major  Hawley  hoped  it 
would  lie  on  the  files  "  till  it  had  eaten  out  the  present  es- 
tablishment."    It  is  evident  that  progress  was  being  made. 

The  Warren  Association  resolved  at  its  meeting  in  1775 
that  "  our  agent  and  committee  be  desired  to  draw  up  a 
letter  to  all  the  Baptist  societies  on  this  continent,  stating 


CiiAi'.  VI.]  A    A'EIV  COXSTITi'TIOX.  361 

the  true  nature  and  importance  of  rcliy;ious  liberty,  and 
signifying  that  we  think  that  a  general  meeting  of  dele- 
gates from  our  societies  in  every  colony  is  expedient,  as 
soon  as  may  be,  to  consult  upon  the  best  means  and 
methods  of  obtaining  deliverance  from  various  encroach- 
ments which  have  been  made  upon  that  liberty,  and  to 
promote  the  general  welfare  of  our  churches,  and  of  all 
God's  people  throughout  the  land."  Backus  had  ap- 
pealed, not  wholly  in  vain,  to  the  Philadelphia,  Charles- 
ton, and  other  Associations  in  1774  for  financial  aid  for 
the  oppressed  in  New  England.  This  call  for  a  meeting 
of  the  Baptists  of  the  continent  was  the  first  effort  to  bring 
the  representatives  of  the  entire  body  together.  The  out- 
break of  hostilities  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother- 
country  would  have  made  the  meeting  impracticable,  even 
if  no  other  obstacles  had  presented  themselves.  Such  a 
meeting  could  never  be  secured  till  th'e  denomination  had 
been  aroused  on  behalf  of  foreign  missions. 

A  new  constitution  was  framed  by  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court  in  1777,  to  be  acted  upon  by  the  same  body 
a  year  later.  An  article  restoring  some  of  the  old  eccle- 
siastical laws  alarmed  the  I^aptists,  who  circulated  about  a 
hundred  copies  of  a  petition  against  the  perpetuation  of 
these  laws  and  insisting  that  it  be  "  a  fundamental  principle 
of  our  government  that  ministers  shall  be  supported  only 
by  Christ's  authority,  and  not  at  all  by  assessment  and 
secular  force, — which  impartial  liberty  has  long  been 
claimed  and  enjoyed  by  the  city  of  Boston."  Many  be- 
sides Baptists  signed  this  petition.  As  the  proposed  con- 
stitution was  rejected  the  petition  was  not  presented. 

The  pen  of  Backus  was  kept  busy  in  publishing  com- 
plaints and  in  warding  off  attacks.  Even  in  the  midst 
of  the  war  Baptists  continued  to  suffer  oppression.  Yet 
Stillman,  of  Boston,  was  appointed  to  preach  the  election 


362  777^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  n. 

sermon  in  1778,  and  he  utilized  the  occasion  for  setting 
forth  the  Baptist  view  of  the  relations  of  church  and  state. 

In  1779  a  Constitutional  Convention  was  held  at  Cam- 
bridge. The  obnoxious  laws  were  again  incorporated. 
Again  the  Baptists  circulated  a  remonstrance,  which  was 
largely  signed.  Nevertheless  the  General  Court  of  i  780 
adopted  a  constitution  that  fell  considerably  short  of  the 
Baptists'  demand.  It  empowered  the  legislature  to  make 
"  suitable  provision  "  for  the  support  of  ministers,  yet  it 
declared  that  "  no  subordination  of  one  sect  or  denomina- 
tion to  another  shall  ever  be  established  by  law."  It  was 
as  yet  unsettled  whether  the  certificate  law  could  still  be 
enforced.  A  test  case  was  soon  brought  before  the  courts, 
and  decision  was  at  last  given  in  favor  of  the  Baptists  (1783). 
But  trouble  was  not  yet  at  an  end.  Members  of  a  church 
organized  in  Cambridge  in  1781  were  taxed  to  the  support 
of  the  Congregational  minister,  and  when  appeal  was  made 
to  the  courts  decision  was  made  against  them.  The  only  re- 
course was  "  to  sue  the  money  out  of  the  hands  of  those 
who  took  it,"  and  to  do  this  they  must  gi\e  in  certificates. 
Contrary  to  the  advice  of  Backus,  this  course  was  pursued, 
and  "  their  minister  sued  the  money  out  of  the  hands  of 
their  oppressors,  from  time  to  time,  until  they  left  off  col- 
lecting such  money."  Backus  informs  us  that  "the  like 
was  done  in  various  parts  of  the  country." 

In  I  786  a  law  was  passed  for  amalgamating  ciA'il  and 
ecclesiastical  taxes.  Out  of  the  common  rate  a  majority 
of  the  qualified  voters  might  vote  "  such  sums  of  money 
as  they  shall  judge  necessary,  for  the  settlement,  mainte- 
nance, and  support  of  the  ministry,  schools,"  etc.  This 
law,  while  not  nominally  discriminating  in  favor  of  Con- 
gregational ministers,  was  evidently  intended  to  subserve 
their  interests.  It  withdrew  from  Baptists  even  the  poor 
protection  they  had  under  the  old  exemption  law.      Cases 


Chai'.  VI.]       LIBERTY  IX  MASSACHUSETTS,  iSjj.  363 

of  oppression  gradually  became  less  frequent,  as  public 
sentiment  grew  against  such  tyranny.  The  condition  of 
things  in  1796  is  thus  described  by  Backus:  "  Though  the 
teachers  and  rulers  of  the  uppermost  party  in  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont  are  as 
earnest  as  ever  Pharaoh  was,  to  hold  the  church  of  Christ 
under  the  taxing  power  of  the  world,  to  support  religious 
ministers,  yet  that  power  is  daily  consuming  by  the  Spirit 
of  God's  mouth,  and  the  brightness  of  his  coming.  Very 
few  of  them  now  dare  to  make  distress  upon  any  who  re- 
fuse to  pay  ministers'  taxes ;  and  the  credit  of  Baptist 
churches  and  ministers  is  daily  rising,  in  all  parts  of  our 
country.  And  the  gospel,  enforced  upon  the  souls  of  men 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  has  been  the  evident  cause  of  it ;  for 
before  the  work  of  his  Spirit  in  the  county  of  Hampshire, 
under  the  ministry  of  Edwards  and  others,  in  and  after 
1734,  there  were  but  six  Baptist  churches  in  all  the  gov- 
ernments of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and  none  in 
New  Hampshire;  Vermont  was  not  then  begun.  Yet  in 
these  four  States  there  are  now  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  Baptist  churches,  and  they  are  increasing  fast,  against 
all  the  powers  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Not  less  than  twenty- 
eight  such  churches  have  been  formed  in  the  counties  of 
Cumberland,  Lincoln,  and  Hancock,  in  the  District  of 
Maine;  besides  a  number  more  which  are  not  in  fellowship 
with  those  churches." 

Yet  religious  liberty  was  not  established  in  Massachu- 
setts by  the  complete  separation  of  church  and  state  until 
1833,  a  strenuous  effort  to  secure  this  end  having  failed  as 
late  as  1820. 

Little  has  been  said  about  the  struggle  in  Connecticut. 
An  exemption  law  in  favor  of  Baptists  and  Quakers, 
with  the  requirement  of  certificates,  had  been  enacted 
there  in  1729.      During  and  after  the  Great  Awakening, 


364  '^^^l''-    P'APTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

when  large  numbers  of  Separate  churches  were  benig 
formed  and  many  of  these  were  becoming  Baptist,  restric- 
tions were  put  upon  the  use  of  the  privileges  of  exemption. 
It  is  probable  that  Baptists  in  Connecticut  suffered  greater 
hardship  than  those  in  Massachusetts.  The  revised  statutes 
of  I  784  were  more  favorable  to  Baptists  than  the  Massa- 
chusetts arrangement  of  i  780.  The  removal  of  all  obstruc- 
tions to  religious  freedom  in  Connecticut  occurred  in  1820. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    LIBERTY    OF   CONSCIENCE    IN 
VIRGINIA.^ 

In  the  preceding  sketch  of  the  remarkable  growth  of  the 
Baptist  cause  in  Virginia  from  about  i  755  to  the  beginning 
of  the  Revokition  Httle  was  said  of  the  persecutions  to 
which  Baptists  were  subjected.  As  a  result  of  the  British 
Act  of  Toleration  of  1689,  the  Virginia  authorities  had 
tardily  and  reluctantly  abandoned  the  policy  of  excluding 
and  exterminating  dissent.  Under  the  Act  of  Toleration 
dissenting  ministers  were  allowed  to  carry  on  their  work 
provided  they  would  take  out  licenses  for  particular  places. 
The  General  and  the  Regular  Baptists,  by  conforming  to 
this  regulation,  suffered  little  persecution.  The  Separates 
were  too  full  of  enthusiasm  to  limit  their  activities  to  par- 
ticular places.  They  traveled  widely,  preaching  the  gos- 
pel wherever  they  could  find  hearers.  Their  meetings 
were  sometimes  disorderly  from  excess  of  enthusiasm,  and 
furnished  at  least  a  pretext  for  civil  interference.  Their 
violent  denunciations  of  the  w^orthless  and  corrupt  clergy 
aroused  the  hostility  of  this  privileged  class.  Some  of  the 
most  prominent  of  the  Separate  Baptist  ministers  were 
repeatedly  imprisoned  and  otherwise  maltreated.  Their 
meetings  were  often  broken  up  by  mobs  and  the  leaders 
threatened — sometimes  assaulted.     Thrilling  stories  could 

1  Cf.  Semple ;  Taylor;  Curry;  Curtis;  Howell;  Armitage;  Hening, 
"Statutes  at  Large";  Hawks,  "  Contr.  to  Eccl.  Hist.";  Foote,  "  Sk.  of 
Va. "  ;  Works  of  Jefferson  and  Madison. 

365 


366  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

be  told  of  the  heroism  and  enthusiastic  devotion  of  these 
men,  of  the  way  in  which  their  persecutors  were  changed 
into  zealous  adherents  and  fellow-laborers,  of  their  preach- 
ing from  prison-windows  to  crowds  of  earnest  listeners,  and 
of  their  uncompromising  refusal  to  comply  with  require- 
ments which  they  thought  to  be  against  the  will  of  God. 

The  chief  cause  of  the  rapid  growth  of  dissent  in  Vir- 
ginia was  undoubtedly  popular  disgust  with  the  irreligious, 
tax- fed,  and  exacting  clergy.  Owing  their  appointments 
to  British  influence,  they  were  nearly  all  extreme  opponents 
of  colonial  rights.  Most  of  them  were  connected  with  the 
English  aristocracy,  and  they  found  their  associates  chiefly 
among  the  sporting  aristocracy  of  Virginia,  in  whose 
amusements  and  \ices  they  freely  joined.  No  doubt 
there  were  many  exceptions,  but  the  general  correctness 
of  the  above  statements  is  fully  attested  by  Episcopal 
writers  of  undoubted  integrity.  The  aversion  of  the 
people  to  the  clergy  had  been  intensified  shortly  before 
the  war  by  the  following  circumstance :  The  clerical 
stipends  had  been  fixed  by  law  in  pounds  of  tobacco. 
Owing  to  deficient  crops  in  1755  and  1758  the  price  of 
tobacco  had  risen,  and  as  many  debts  had  been  contracted 
in  terms  of  tobacco  serious  hardship  was  involved.  As  a 
measure  of  relief,  the  Virginia  Assembly  made  all  debts 
payable  at  the  rate  of  twopence  to  the  pound  of  tobacco. 
The  clergy  resisted  this  commutation,  induced  the  British 
government  to  declare  the  act  invalid,  and  attempted  to 
compel  their  parishioners  to  pay  the  difference  between 
twopence  a  pound  and  the  market  price  of  tobacco. 
Patrick  Henry,  the  noted  Presbyterian  lawyer  and  states- 
man, resisted  the  enforcement  of  the  decision  of  the  king 
in  council,  and  in  a  test  case  before  a  Virginia  court  the 
jury  fixed  the  damages  at  one  penny.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  unpopular  tlian  this  effort  of  the  clergy. 


Chap.  VH.]  FKAYEK  FOK   PEKSECUTOKS.  367 

for  their  own  profit  and  at  the  expense  of  the  people,  to 
thwart  the  will  of  the  people  by  invoking  British  interfer- 
ence. In  this  procedure  they  signed  the  death-warrant  of 
their  special  privileges.  The  action  of  the  king  in  council 
in  declaring  the  law  passed  by  the  Assembly  void  was  one 
of  the  most  irritating  of  all  the  measures  that  led  to  the 
Revolution. 

From  this  time  onu-ard  Baptists  and  Presbyterians  co- 
operated heartily  for  the  overthrow  of  the  established 
religion. 

The  years  immediately  preceding  the  Revolution  were 
marked  by  wonderful  spiritual  prosperity  and  bitter  per- 
secution. At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Association  in 
1774  it  was  "agreed  to  set  apart  the  second  and  third 
Saturdays  in  June,  as  public  fast-days,  in  behalf  of  our 
poor  blind  persecutors,  and  for  the  releasement  of  our 
brethren."  At  the  meeting  of  the  Association  in  1775, 
stimulated,  no  doubt,  by  the  example  of  their  brethren  in 
New  England  and  by  the  counsel  of  those  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Association,  it  was  resolved  to  circulate  petitions,  to 
be  presented  to  the  General  Assembly,  for  the  abolition  of 
the  church  establishment  and  the  protection  of  all  religious 
societies  in  the  peaceable  enjoyment  of  their  own  religious 
principles  and  modes  of  worship.  Jeremiah  Walker,  John 
Williams,  and  George  Roberts  were  appointed  to  wait  on 
the  legislature  with  these  petitions.  It  was  further  decided 
to  petition  the  Assembly  for  the  privilege  of  preaching  in 
the  army.      The  latter  petition  was  readily  granted. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  General  Association,  in  i  JjG, 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  "  inquire  whether  any  griev- 
ances existed  in  the  civil  laws,  that  were  oppressive  to  the 
Baptists."  The  Committee  reported  that  the  marriage  law 
was  "  partial  and  oppressive."  Marriages  could  be  legally 
effected  only  by  the  offices  of  the   Episcopal  clergy.      It 


368  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  ii. 

was  agreed  to  memorialize  the  next  General  Assembly, 
"■  praying  for  a  law  affording  equal  privileges  to  all  ordained 
ministers  of  every  denomination." 

At  the  October  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  in 
response  to  the  petitions  of  Baptists  and  others,  laws  were 
passed  suspending  the  payment  of  the  stipends  of  the 
clergy  and  "  exempting  the  different  societies  of  dissenters 
from  contributing  to  the  support  and  maintenance  of  the 
church,  as  by  law  established,  and  its  ministers."  Thomas 
Jefferson,  who  from  the  beginning  of  the  struggle  was  the 
staunch  advocate  of  liberty  of  conscience,  was  the  leading 
spirit  in  the  Assembly  and  had  much  to  do  with  this  leg- 
islation. The  suspension  of  the  payment  of  clerical  salaries 
was  repeated  in  1777,  and  in  1779  all  legislation  concern- 
ing the  payment  of  such  salaries  was  repealed.  From  i  776 
onward  the  question  of  a  general  assessment  for  the  sup- 
port of  ministers  of  religion  was  much  agitated.  The  pro- 
posal was  that  all  alike  be  assessed,  but  that  each  individ- 
ual have  the  right  to  designate  the  church  or  minister  to 
whom  his  rate  should  be  paid. 

In  1778  the  General  Association  appointed  a  committee 
of  seven  to  report  on  grievances.  They  reported  that 
should  a  general  assessment  take  place  it  would  be  injuri- 
ous to  the  dissenters  in  general ;  and  that  the  assumption  of 
the  clergy  of  the  former  established  church  that  they  have 
exclusive  right  to  officiate  in  marriages  has  subjected  dis- 
senters to  great  inconveniences.  They  recommended  that 
two  be  appointed  to  lay  these  grievances  before  the  next 
General  Assembly.  Jeremiah  Walker  and  Elijah  Craig 
were  appointed  for  this  purpose. 

In  1779  Walker  was  able  to  make  a  highly  gratifying 
report,  and  a  resolution  was  passed  approving  of  the  bill 
establishing  religious  freedom.  In  \iew  of  the  prospect 
of  an  early  amendment  of  the  marriage  law  many  Baptist 


CiiAi'.  VII.]  MARRIAGE   LAW.  369 

ministers  took  the  responsibility  of  celebrating  marriages, 
acting  on  the  advice  of  Patrick  Henry,  who  considered  this 
the  most  efficacious  means  of  securing  the  legislation  de- 
sired. At  the  request  of  the  Association  these  marriages 
were  sanctioned  by  a  special  act  of  the  Assembly. 

By  1780  the  less  aggressive  Regular  Baptists  had  been 
awakened  to  the  need  of  making  their  influence  felt  in 
favor  of  reform,  and  they  appointed  a  committee  to  act  in 
conjunction  with  a  committee  of  the  General  Association. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  division  of  the 
General  Association  into  District  Associations  and  the 
constitution  of  the  General  Committee  in  1783.  This 
committee,  composed  of  four  delegates  from  each  District 
Association,  had  for  its  chief  aim  the  consideration  of  "  all 
the  political  grievances  of  the  whole  Baptist  Society  in 
Virginia,  and  all  references  from  the  District  Associations 
which  concern  the  Baptist  Society  at  large."  Its  plan  of 
action  provicied,  further,  that  "  no  petition,  memorial,  or 
remonstrance  shall  be  presented  to  the  General  Assembly 
from  any  Association  in  connection  with  the  General 
Committee ;  all  things  of  that  kind  shall  originate  with 
the  General  Committee."  The  marriage  law,  the  vestry 
law,  and  the  proposal  for  general  assessment  were  the 
matters  that  first  received  the  attention  of  the  Committee. 
At  its  first  meeting,  in  1784,  it  was  decided  to  ask  the 
General  Assembly  to  repeal  the  laws  referred  to.  Reuben 
Ford,  who  had  been  appointed  to  w^ait  on  the  Assembly, 
reported  at  the  meeting  in  1785  that  he  had  fulfilled  his 
commission  and  that  "  certain  amendments  had  been  made 
to  the  marriage  law  which  he  thought  satisfactory."  The 
law  in  force  for  some  time  restricted  the  licenses  of  dis- 
senting ministers  to  four  of  each  denomination  in  each 
county,  anci  allowed  these  four  to  exercise  these  licenses 
only  in  the  county  in  which  they  resided.      These  restric- 


370  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

tions  were  removed  at  this  time.  He  reported  that  "  a  bill 
for  a  general  assessment  was  introduced  and  had  almost 
passed  into  a  law,"  but  that  a  motion  had  prevailed  "  that 
it  should  be  referred  to  the  next  General  Assembly  in 
order  to  give  the  people  an  opportunity  to  consider  it." 
One  of  the  hardest  struggles  the  Baptists  ever  had  for 
religious  liberty  was  that  through  which  they  defeated 
this  bill.  The  Presbyterians,  who  in  most  matters  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  Baptists,  were  far  from 
being  united  and  zealous  in  opposition  to  this  measure  so 
radically  opposed  to  Baptist  principles.  The  resolution  of 
the  General  Committee  on  this  matter  is  so  admirable  a 
presentation  of  the  Baptist  position  that  it  must  be  quoted 
in  full :  "  Resolved,  That  it  be  recommended  to  those 
counties  which  have  not  yet  prepared  petitions  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  General  Assembly  against  the  engrossed  bill 
for  a  general  assessment  for  the  support  of  the  teachers  of 
the  Christian  religion,  to  proceed  thereon  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible ;  that  it  is  believed  to  be  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel  for  the  Legislature  thus  to  proceed  in  matters 
of  religion ;  that  no  human  laws  ought  to  be  established 
for  this  purpose,  but  that  every  person  ought  to  be  left 
entirely  free  in  respect  to  matters  of  religion ;  that  the 
holy  Author  of  our  religion  needs  no  such  compulsive 
measures  for  the  promotion  of  his  cause ;  that  the  gospel 
wants  not  the  feeble  arm  of  man  for  its  support ;  that  it 
has  made,  and  will  again,  through  divine  power,  make,  its 
way  against  all  opposition;  and  that  should  the  Legislature 
assume  the  right  of  taxing  the  people  for  the  support  of  the 
gospel,  it  will  be  destructive  to  religious  liberty." 

Reuben  Ford  was  appointed  to  wait  on  the  General  As- 
sembly with  remonstrance  and  petition.  \\\  their  struggle 
against  general  assessment  Baptists  had  the  influential  sup- 
port of  such  statesmen  as  Thomas  Jefferson,  James  Madison, 


Chap,  vii.]       REPEAL    OF  INCOKrOKArLXG  ACT.  371 

and  George  Mason,  who  were  among  the  foremost  advo- 
cates of  Hberty  of  conscience.  General  assessment  was 
defeated  in  the  Assembly  in  i  786,  and  an  act  was  passed, 
drawn  up  by  Jefferson,  lucidly  expounding  the  doctrine  of 
religious  liberty. 

The  next  politico- religious  matter  that  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  General  Committee  was  the  law  for  the 
incorporation  of  the  Episcopal  society.  It  was  resolved 
at  the  meeting  in  i  786  "  that  petitions  ought  to  be  drawn 
and  circulated  in  the  different  counties  and  presented  to 
the  next  General  Assembly,  praying  for  a  repeal  of  the 
incorporating  act,  and  that  the  public  property  which  is 
by  that  act  vested  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  be 
sold  and  the  money  applied  to  public  use,  and  that  Reuben 
Ford  and  John  Leland  attend  the  next  Assembly  as  agents 
in  behalf  of  the  General  Committee.''  Representatives  of 
the  Regular  Baptist  Association  (the  Ketokton)  were,  at 
this  meeting,  received  as  full  members  of  the  Committee. 
John  Leland  from  this  time  onward  was  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  denomination  in  the  struggle  for  liberty  of  conscience 
and  in  evangelization.  Born  in  Massachusetts  in  1754,  he 
removed  to  Virginia  in  1775,  where  he  labored  for  about 
fifteen  years  and  baptized  seven  hundred  believers.  His 
later  years  were  spent  in  New  England.  He  was  one  of 
the  very  ablest  men  of  his  time,  and,  though  somewhat 
eccentric  and  not  always  working  harmoniously  with  his 
brethren,  his  influence  was  wholesome  and  profound.  His 
"  Virginia  Chronicle  "  is  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  infor- 
mation on  the  period  that  it  covers. 

Ford  and  Leland  waited  upon  the  General  Assembly 
and  secured  the  repeal  of  the  incorporation  act  complained 
of  by  the  General  Committee.  But  the  glebe-lands  that 
had  been  set  apart  for  the  benefit  of  the  Episcopal  clergy 
were  still  left  in  their  hands.     A  majority  of  the  General 


372  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  ii. 

Committee  decided  (1787)  that  these  lands  ought  to  be 
viewed  as  pubHc  property.  But  as  some  were  of  a  con- 
trary mind  no  action  was  taken  at  this  meeting.  The 
union  of  Regulars  and  Separates  was  consummated  at  this 
time  and  the  denomination  greatly  strengthened  for  ag- 
gressive work  thereby. 

In  I  788  the  General  Committee  extended  its  \'iew  so  as 
to  embrace  national  questions.  The  United  States  Con- 
stitution had  been  drafted,  and  its  ratification  by  the  various 
States  was  in  progress.  The  question  was  raised  in  the 
committee,  whether  the  new  Federal  Constitution  made 
sufficient  provision  for  the  secure  enjoyment  of  religious 
liberty.  It  was  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Committee 
that  it  did  not.  A  noble  letter  was  drafted  by  John  Le- 
land,  signed  by  the  officers  of  the  Committee,  and  sent  to 
President  Washington.  After  a  full  historical  statement 
with  reference  to  the  recent  struggles  for  civil  liberty,  and 
complimentary  references  to  Washington's  part  therein,  it 
proceeds:  "The  want  of  efficiency  in  the  confederation, 
the  redundancy  of  laws,  and  their  partial  administration  in 
the  States,  called  aloud  for  a  new  arrangement  of  our  sys- 
tems. The  wisdom  of  the  States  for  that  purpose  was 
collected  in  a  grand  convention,  over  which  you,  sir,  had 
the  honor  to  preside.  A  national  government  in  all  its 
parts  was  recommended  as  the  only  preservatix'c  of  the 
Union,  which  plan  of  government  is  now  in  actual  opera- 
tion. When  the  Constitution  first  made  its  appearance  in 
Virginia,  we,  as  a  society,  feared  that  the  liberty  of  con- 
science, dearer  to  us  than  property  or  life,  was  not  suffi- 
ciently secured.  Perhaps  our  jealousies  were  heightened 
by  the  usage  we  received  in  Virginia,  under  the  regal 
government,  when  mobs,  fines,  bonds,  and  prisons  were 
our  frequent  repast.  Convinced,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
without  an  effective  national  government  the  States  would 


Chap.  VII.]        WASHINGTON  AND    THE  BAPTISTS.  373 

fall  into  disunion  and  all  the  subsequent  evils;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  fearing  that  we  should  be  accessory  to  some 
religious  oppression,  should  any  one  society  in  the  Union 
predominate  over  the  rest ;  yet,  amidst  all  these  inquietudes 
of  mind,  our  consolation  arose  from  this  consideration — the 
plan  must  be  good,  for  it  has  the  signature  of  a  tried,  trusty 
friend,  and  if  religious  liberty  is  rather  insecure  in  the  Con- 
stitution, '  the  administration  will  certainly  prevent  all  op- 
pression, for  a  WASHINGTON  will  preside.'  .  .  .  Should 
the  horrid  evils  that  have  been  so  pestiferous  in  Asia  and 
Europe,  faction,  ambition,  war,  perfidy,  fraud,  and  perse- 
cution for  conscience'  sake,  ever  approach  the  borders  of 
our  happy  nation,  may  the  name  and  administration  of  our 
beloved  President,  like  the  radiant  source  of  day,  scatter 
all  these  dark  clouds  from  the  American  hemisphere." 

The  essential  part  of  the  President's  reply  may  also  be 
quoted  :  "  If  I  could  have  entertained  the  slightest  appre- 
hension that  the  Constitution  framed  by  the  Convention 
where  I  had  the  honor  to  preside  might  possibly  endanger 
the  religious  rights  of  any  ecclesiastical  society,  certainly 
I  would  never  have  placed  my  signature  to  it;  and  if  I 
could  now  conceive  that  the  general  government  might 
ever  be  so  administered  as  to  render  the  liberty  of  con- 
science insecure,  I  beg  you  will  be  persuaded  that  no  one 
would  be  more  zealous  than  myself  to  establish  effectual 
barriers  against  the  horrors  of  spiritual  tyranny  and  every 
species  of  religious  persecution.  For,  you  doubtless  re- 
member, I  have  often  expressed  my  sentiments  that  any 
man,  conducting  himself  as  a  good  citizen  and  being  ac- 
countable to  God  alone  for  his  religious  opinions,  ought 
to  be  protected  in  worshiping  the  Deity  according  to  the 
dictates  of  his  own  conscience.  While  I  recollect  with 
satisfaction  that  the  religious  society  of  which  you  are 
members  have  been,  throughout  America,  uniformly  and 


374  ^-^^   BAPTISTS.  [I'lR.  II, 

almost  unanimously  the  firm  friends  to  civil  liberty,  and 
the  persevering  promoters  of  our  glorious  Revolution,  I 
cannot  hesitate  to  believe  that  they  will  be  the  faithful 
supporters  of  a  free  yet  efficient  general  government. 
Under  this  pleasing  expectation,  I  rejoice  to  assure  them 
that  they  may  rely  upon  my  best  wishes  and  endeavors 
to  advance  their  prosperity." 

That  these  were  no  empty  assurances  the  sequel  wuU 
show.  A  short  time  afterward  James  Madison,  with  the 
approval  of  the  President,  submitted  certain  amendments. 
According  to  Article  VI.  of  the  original  Constitution,  Con- 
gress was  prohibited  from  imposing  religious  tests  in  con- 
nection with  "  any  office  or  public  trust  under  the  United 
States."  This  left  Congress  at  liberty  to  impose  religious 
tests  for  other  purposes  than  those  specified.  In  place  of 
this  the  following  was  adopted  as  Article  I.  :  "  Congress 
shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion, 
or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  abridging  the 
freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press,  or  the  right  of  the 
people  peaceably  to  assemble  and  to  petition  the  govern- 
ment for  the  redress  of  grievances."  The  importance  of 
this  provision,  which  resulted  from  what  might  have 
seemed  the  extreme  sensitiveness  of  the  Virginia  Baptist 
General  Committee,  is  now  almost  universally  recognized. 
This  amendment  was  strenuously  opposed  by  a  number  of 
representatives  in  Congress,  especially  by  those  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut ;  but  it  was  adopted  by  a  consid- 
erable majority  September  23,  1789.  It  was  ratified  by 
all  the  States  except  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  before 
the  close  of  i  791. 

The  only  dragons  that  still  remained  in  the  path  of  the 
General  Committee  were  the  glebe-lands  still  held  by  the 
Episcopal  clergy,  and  the  institution  of  slavery.  Petition 
after  petition  was  made  for  the  confiscation  of  these  lands. 


Chap,  vii.]        JEFFERSON  AND    THE  BAPTISTS.  375 

Success  crowned  their  efforts  in  i  799.  They  uttered  the 
strong  protest  against  slavery  ah'eady  noticed,  but  this 
proved  ineffective.  Having  accompHshed  woriv  of  the 
noblest  and  most  momentous  kind,  the  Committee  dis- 
banded in  1 799,  giving  place  to  the  General  Meeting  of 
Correspondence,  which  held  its  first  session  in  1800. 

Little  importance  is  to  be  attached  to  the  tradition  that 
Jefferson  derived  his  idea  of  civil  government  afterward 
incorporated  in  the  United  States  Constitution  from  ob- 
servation of  the  polity  of  a  Baptist  church.  There  were 
Baptist  churches  near  his  home,  and  there  is  no  doubt  but 
that  he  was  in  friendly  intercourse  with  the  wise  and  elo- 
quent John  Leland.  As  a  student  of  political  science 
Jefferson  must  have  been  perfectly  familiar  with  the  real 
and  ideal  republics  of  the  past,  and  he  did  not  need  to  go 
to  a  Baptist  church  for  ideas  of  democratic  government. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  certain  features  of  govern- 
ment may  have  been  impressed  upon  his  mind  as  suitable 
for  his  own  land  and  time  through  his  intercourse  with 
Baptists. 


PERIOD   III. 

FROM   THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE   TRIENNIAL 
CONVENTION    TO    THE    PRESENT    TIME    (i 8 14-1894). 


377 


CHAPTER    I. 

RETROSPECT   AND    PROSPECT. 

The  final  period  of  American  Baptist  history  begins 
with  the  conversion  of  Judson  and  Rice  to  Baptist  views 
and  the  inauguration  of  the  modern  missionary  movement. 
As  the  effects  of  tliese  con\-ersions  on  the  denomination 
did  not  assume  tangible  form  until  1814,  the  beginning  of 
the  period  may  be  dated  in  that  )'ear. 

By  18 1 2,  through  processes  that  have  been  indicated  in 
the  preceding  chapters,  the  denomination  had  increased 
to  a  membership  of  172,972,  grouped  in  2164  cliurches 
and  shepherded  by  1 605  ministers.  Baptists  were  well 
distributed  throughout  the  seventeen  settled  States  and 
had  begun  to  take  root  in  a  number  of  the  more  sparsely 
settled  Territories.  Virginia  led  the  Baptist  hosts  with 
35,665  ;  Kentucky,  a  newly  occupied  but  rapidly  settled 
State,  followed  with  22,694;  New  York  came  third  with 
18,499  !  Georgia  occupied  the  fourth  position  with  14,761  ; 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Tennessee  follow  with 
12,567,  11,821,  and  11,325,  respectively;  the  New  Eng- 
land States  altogether  had  32,272  Baptists  and  the  Middle 
States  26,155. 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  numerical  strength  had 
been  more  than  doubled  in  the  preceding  ten  years,  as  ac- 
cording to  careful  estimates  it  did  not  much  exceed  eighty 
thousand  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  The  revivals 
of  the  first  decade  of  the  century  had  prepared  the  way 

379 


38o  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

for  the  great  onward  movement  to  be  described  in  the 
chapters  that  follow. 

The  mass  of  the  Baptists  were  indifferent  or  hostile  to 
ministerial  education,  and  circumstances  were  such  that  a 
high  standard  of  literary  and  theological  preparation  for 
the  ministry  would  in  any  case  have  been  unattainable. 
The  Baptists  of  the  Philadelphia  Association  had  long- 
since  taken  the  lead  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  elevation 
of  the  character  and  dignity  of  the  denomination,  and 
their  influence  had  been  profoundly  felt  in  New  England 
and  the  South.  The  Charleston  and  Warren  Associations 
were  formed  by  men  who  had  been  trained  in  the  Phila- 
delphia, and  perpetuated  and  extended  the  beneficent  in- 
fluences of  the  older  body.  Brown  University  was,  as  has 
been  seen,  the  direct  product  of  the  planning  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Association,  and  its  success  was  due  to  the  efi"orts 
of  men  who  had  their  spiritual  birth  and  training  in  this 
wise  and  conservative,  yet  progressive,  organization.  Un- 
der the  influence  of  the  New  Light  movement  the  spread 
of  the  denomination  was  too  rapid  to  allow  of  any  sort  of 
educational  standard  for  the  ministry.  Those  who  were 
converted  under  the  highly  emotional  preaching  of  the 
Separate  Baptist  evangelists  shared  so  fully  in  the  enthu- 
siasm of  these  preachers  tliat  they  could  wait  for  no  prep- 
aration. The  success  of  such  men  in  soul-winning,  as 
compared  with  the  failure  of  educated  but  unspiritual 
ministers,  had  a  tendency  to  produce  in  themselves  and  in 
those  among  whom  they  labored  the  conviction  that  learn- 
ing was  not  only  unnecessary  but  harmful,  as  leading  men 
to  trust  in  human  resources  rather  than  in  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  under  such 
circumstances  emotional  excitement  was  often  mistaken  by 
ministers  and  people  for  spiritual  quickening. 

Brown   University  was  still,   at   the   beginning  of   the 


C 1 1 A  [■.  1 .  ]  EA  KL  y  EDL  TJ  7  VOXA  L   EFFOR  7  'S.  3  8  I 

present    period,    the    only    degree-conferriny;    institution 
under   Baptist   control.      The   Baptists   of  the   Charleston 
Association     had     established     an     Education     Fund     in 
1 791,  and  before   1810  had  expended  $3397  i"  assisting 
young  men  in  preparing  for  the  ministry  ;  but  the  nineteen 
young  men  aided  before  18 13   had  either  pursued  their 
studies   privately  under  the   direction  of   pastors   or   had 
been  sent  to  colleges  already  established.     The  elder  Dr. 
W.  T.  Brantly  was  assisted  at  South  Carolina  College,  and 
some  before  and  after  this  date  were  sent  to  Brown  Uni- 
versity.     In  the  same  year  (1791)  the  Warren  Association 
established  a  charitable  fund  "  for  the  purpose  of  assisting 
such  young  men  of  the  Baptist  denomination  as  may  ap- 
pear to  be  suitably  qualified  for  the  ministry,  with  a  col- 
legiate education."      A  "  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Baptist 
Education  Fund  "  was  afterward  constituted.      The  Bap- 
tists of  Georgia  had   made  an   earnest  efTort  during  the 
first  decade  of  the  century  to  found  a  college;    but  the 
time  for  success  was  not  yet.      The  question  of  denomina- 
tional education  had  for  many  years  been  agitated  among 
Virginia  Baptists,  but  those  who  were  really  interested  in 
the  matter  w^ere  so  few  that  nothing  could  be  accomplished 
until  long  after  the  beginning  of  the  present  period.      Op- 
position   was    more    pronounced    to    ministerial    than    to 
literary   education    under   denominational   auspices.      The 
enlightened    and    enterprising   men  who   labored   for   the 
estabHshment  of  a  Baptist  college  in  Georgia  felt  it  nec- 
es.sary,  as  has  been  seen,  to  guard  against  the  supposition 
that  the  proposed  college  was  "  designed  for  the  education 
of  our  children  with  a  view  to  the  ministry."      Many  who 
favored    denominational    literary    education    would    have 
looked   upon  a  modern   theological  seminary  as  a  human 
efTort  to  accomplish  that  which  is  God's  sole  prerogative. 
In   1812    the    Baptist    Education    Society  of  the  Middle 


382  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

States  was  formed,  and  under  its  auspices  Dr.  William 
Staughton,  of  Philadelphia,  began  to  instruct  students  for 
the  ministry. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  widespread  opposition  to  minis- 
terial education  went  a  strong  prejudice  against  ministerial 
salaries.  If  without  spending  time  and  means  in  securing  an 
education,  and  without  special  study  in  the  preparation  of 
sermons,  men  are  qualified  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  preach 
the  gospel,  why  should  they  not  support  themselves  by 
pursuing  the  ordinary  secular  occupations?  As  a  matter 
of  fact  most  of  those  who  felt  called  to  enter  the  ministry 
possessed  farms  and  (especially  in  the  South)  slaves  to 
cultivate  them.  Many  men  thus  situated  and  having  a 
fair  education  to  begin  with  devoted  a  large  amount  of 
time  to  private  study  and  became  good  literary  and  theo- 
logical scholars ;  but  a  large  proportion  undoubtedly  fell 
very  far  short  of  attaining  to  such  a  grasp  of  truth  as  would 
have  made  them  instructive  preachers.  Noisy  declama- 
tion in  unnatural  tones,  accompanied  by  violent  physical 
exercises  and  manifest  emotional  excitement,  in  too  many 
cases  took  the  place  of  intelligent  exposition  of  the  truth 
made  vital  by  the  indwelling  power  of  the  Spirit.  The 
latter  part  of  the  preceding  period  and  the  beginning  of  the 
present  produced  a  large  number  of  Baptist  preachers  of 
the  highest  grade;  but  the  average  of  ministerial  culture 
was  low,  and  the  large  amount  of  illiteracy  in  the  ministry, 
and  the  widespread  satisfaction  with  an  illiterate  ministry, 
furnished  an  obstacle  of  the  most  serious  nature  to  the  on- 
ward and  upward  movement  that  has  characterized  the 
recent  history  of  the  denomination. 

The  facts  just  referred  to  enable  us  to  account  for  the 
general  neglect  of  the  cities  and  towns.  Town  people 
were  less  susceptible  to  the  evangelistic  methods  employed, 
and  were  less  willinsf  to  listen  to  the  earnest  but  uncouth 


Chap,  i.]  ILLITERATE  PREACHERS.  383 

exhortations  of  illiterate  preachers.  Most  of  those  who  en- 
tered the  ministry  then,  as  now,  were  country-bred,  and 
preferred  to  live  on  their  farms  and  preach  within  reach 
of  their  homes  rather  than  attempt  to  plant  churches  in 
the  towns  and  cities.  As  there  were  no  home  mission 
societies  to  encourage  the  occupation  of  important  centers, 
it  was  difficult  to  find  men  properly  qualified  for  town 
work  that  could  gain  a  support  while  doing  foundation 
work.  Many  of  the  ablest  ministers,  some  of  whom  could 
have  afforded  to  live  in  cities  and  devote  themselves  to 
the  upbuilding  of  city  churches,  preferred  the  independence 
of  rural  life  and  work,  and  declined  calls  to  city  pastorates. 
These  remarks  apply  more  particularly  to  the  South  and 
least  of  all  to  New  England,  where  from  the  beginning 
town  life  was  emphasized.  Scores  of  cases  might  be  cited 
in  which  the  ablest  preachers  persistently  declined  city 
pastorates,  even  when  good  salaries  were  offered.  The 
case  of  Andrew  Broaddus,  of  Virginia,  whose  ministry  ex- 
tended from  I  79 1  to  1848,  has  many  parallels.  He  pre- 
ferred to  minister  to  country  churches,  though  sought  for 
by  leading  churches  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  Norfolk,  and  Richmond.  At  one  time  he  was 
prevailed  upon  to  accept  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Church, 
Richmond,  but  he  soon  resigned  in  favor  of  his  beloved 
country  churches  in  Caroline  Count)^.  The  case  of  Rich- 
ard Furman,  who  left  the  High  Hills  of  Santee  to  accept 
the  Charleston  pastorate,  and  who  gained  in  the  chief  city 
of  South  Carolina  an  almost  unparalleled  influence,  is  ex- 
ceptional ;  and  the  strong  and  highly  intelligent  cliurch  that 
he  built  up  shows  what  might  have  been  accomplished  in 
other  cities  if  the  very  best  men  had  been  willing  to  de- 
vote their  lives  to  city  work.  It  was  with  the  utmost 
difficulty  that  churches  like  those  of  Boston,  New  York, 
and   Philadelphia  could    supply  vacancies  when  they  oc- 


384  ^'^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

curred.  These  remarks  apply  to  the  latter  part  of  the  pre- 
ceding period  and  the  early  part  of  the  present. 

Little  had  been  attempted  in  the  way  of  periodical  lit- 
erature before  the  beginning  of  the  present  period.  Henry 
Holcombe's  "  Analytical  Repository  "  (1801-02)  failed  to 
receive  the  support  necessary  for  its  continuance.  The 
next  venture  of  the  kind  was  the  "  Massachusetts  Baptist 
Missionary  Magazine,"  the  first  number  of  which  was 
published  in  September,  1803.  The  twelfth  number, 
completing  the  first  volume,  was  not  reached  until  Janu- 
ary, 1808.  Dr.  Thomas  Baldwin,  pastor  of  the  Second 
Church,  Boston,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  Baptist 
ministers  of  the  time,  edited  it  for  the  first  fourteen  years. 
Its  publication  has  been  continuous  to  the  present  time. 
In  1826  it  became  the  organ  of  the  Triennial  Convention 
and  omitted  the  State  name  from  its  title.  At  first  it  was 
a  religious  miscellany.  The  work  of  English  Baptist  mis- 
sionaries was  kept  constantly  before  its  readers,  and  home 
mission  matters  were  duly  emphasized. 

From  the  very  beginning  there  was  much  of  domestic 
missionary  work  accomplished  by  Baptists.  Nothing  was 
more  characteristic  of  the  Separate  Baptists  than  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  that  impelled  them  to  carry  the  gospel  into 
the  most  remote  and  destitute  regions.  The  Philadelphia 
Association  was  from  its  organization  largely  interested  in 
church  extension  and  evangelization,  and  its  beneficent 
work  has  been  duly  recorded.  The  Charleston  Associa- 
tion entered  upon  home  mission  work  early  in  its  history 
and  did  not  remit  its  fruitful  efforts  for  supplying  destitute 
regions  with  gospel  privileges.  In  fact,  every  Association 
gave  some  attention  to  home  evangelization. 

As  early  as  1800  some  Baptist  and  Congregational 
women  of  Boston  united  in  forming  the  Boston  Female 
Society    for     Missionary    Purposes,    and     Cent    Societies 


CiiAi'.  I.].  EARLY  MISSIOXARY  SOCIETIES.  385 

were  soon  afterward  organized  in  many  Baptist  churches 
throughout  the  country.  In  1802  the  Massacliusetts 
Domestic  Missionary  Society  was  formed,  the  object 
being  "  to  furnish  occasional  preaching  and  to  promote 
the  knowledge  of  evangelic  truth  in  the  new  settlements 
in  these  United  States;  or  further,  if  circumstances  should 
render  it  proper."  The  work  of  this  society  soon  extended 
to  Maine,  Canada,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois, 
and  Missouri.  Joseph  Cornell,  who  was  sent  to  New  York 
State  and  Canada,  reported  that  he  had  traveled  six  him- 
dred  miles  without  meeting  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  The 
society  early  determined  to  "  know  neither  East  nor  West, 
North  nor  South,"  but  to  extend  gospel  privileges  in  e\'ery 
direction  as  far  as  means  would  allow. 

The  Lake  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  formed  at 
Pompe}',  Onondaga  County,  N.  Y.,  in  1807,  and  in  1809 
became  the  Hamilton  Missionary  Society.  The  aim  of 
this  society  was  domestic  evangelization.  An  auxiliary 
female  society  was  soon  afterward  organized,  and  in  1812 
presented  the  general  society  with  "  twenty  yards  of  fulled 
cloth,"  accompanied  by  an  address  full  of  the  missionary 
spirit. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Baptists  of 
America  were  first  brought  to  recognize  their  obligation 
to  aid  in  propagating  the  gospel  in  foreign  parts  by  the 
conversion  of  Judson  and  Rice.  From  the  beginning  of 
the  English  Baptist  missionary  movement  under  Carey, 
American  Baptists  manifested  the  deepest  interest  in  the 
work.  Carey  was  early  in  correspondence  with  represent- 
ative American  Baptists,  such  as  Drs.  Rogers  and  Staugh- 
ton  of  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Williams  of  New  York,  Dr^.  Still- 
man  and  Baldwin  of  BostcMi,  Dr.  P^urman  (^f  Charleston, 
etc.  In  1805  Benjamin  Wickes,  of  Philadelphia,  a  pious 
Presbyterian  sea-captain  wlio  had  taken  out  se\-eral  of  the 


386  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Plk.  hi. 

missionaries  and  had  become  profoundly  interested  in  their 
work,  visited  the  Baptist  mission  in  India.  On  his  return 
through  England  he  secured  one  thousand  guineas  from 
the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  for  pubHshing  versions  of 
the  Scriptures  by  Carey  and  Marshman,  and  undertook 
to  raise  an  additional  sum  in  America.  Ministers  of  vari- 
ous denominations  in  Philadelphia  united  in  signing  an 
appeal  for  funds  for  this  purpose  and  in  commending 
Captain  Wickes  as  trustworthy.  A  number  of  ministers 
of  various  denominations  in  different  localities  throughout 
the  country  were  designated  as  agents  for  receiving  and 
transmitting  funds.  Under  the  influence  of  this  appeal 
by  the  Philadelphia  ministers  the  ministers  of  various 
denominations  in  Boston  took  the  matter  up  with  great 
heartiness  and  put  forth  (April,  1806)  an  equally  enthu- 
siastic appeal  on  behalf  of  the  Bible  translation  fund. 
These  documents  (published  in  the  "  Massachusetts  Mis- 
sionary Magazine,"  June,  1806)  show  how  profoundly 
impressed  the  leaders  of  the  various  evangelical  denomi- 
nations were  with  the  importance  of  the  work  that  was 
being  done  by  Carey  and  his  coadjutors,  and  how  cordial 
had  become  the  relations  between  Baptists  and  other 
evangelical  bodies  in  the  great  centers.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  the  money  raised  at  this  time  was  due  to  the 
efi"orts  of  Drs.  Furman  and  Keith,  of  Charleston.  From 
this  time  till  the  inauguration  of  American  Bapti-st  foreign 
missionary  work  considerable  sums  were  collected  from 
year  to  year  and  forwarded  to  the  missionaries  at  Seram- 
pore.  In  18 12  the  Baptist  churches  of  Philadelphia  began 
holding  a  monthly  concert  of  prayer  "  for  the  spread  of 
tlie  ever-blessed  go.spel."  Besides  these  monthly  union 
meetings,  "  quarterly  prayer-meetings  for  the  spread  of 
the  gospel  "  were  held  by  members  of  each  church,  usually 
in  the  homes  of  those  specially  interested.      In  May.  181  3, 


Chap,  i.]  THE  ADl'ANCE  MOVEMEXT.  387 

a  Special  missionary  sermon  was  preached  and  a  collec- 
tion taken  "  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  the  mission  at 
Serampore  toward  reimbursing  the  loss  by  the  late  con- 
flagration." 

The  period  on  which  we  are  entering  has  been  one  of 
unexampled  material  development.  Immigration  on  a 
large  scale  had  already  set  in,  and  the  process  of  occupy- 
ing the  vast  regions  in  the  interior  had  made  good  prog- 
ress. It  was  to  go  forvv'ard  with  accelerated  speed.  In 
18 1 3  cities  were  few  and  small,  and  the  great  preponder- 
ance of  influence,  especially  in  the  South,  was  in  the  rural 
districts.  Cities  have  grown  in  a  far  greater  ratio  than  the 
population  and  have  become  the  great  centers  of  influence. 
As  already  suggested,  outside  of  a  few  of  the  older  and 
more  important  cities  the  great  mass  of  the  Baptist  popu- 
lation was  gathered  in  country  churches,  many  of  them 
well  organized  and  vigorous  and  enjoying  the  services  of 
the  ablest  men  the  denomination  could  produce.  In  18 13 
few  of  the  ablest  men  could  be  induced  to  accept  a  city 
pastorate;  in  1894  few  gifted  men  are  content  to  labor 
permanently  in  the  country,  and  city  pastorates  are  cov- 
eted as  conditions  of  the  highest  ministerial  influence. 

The  growth  of  the  Baptist  denomination  has  more  than 
kept  pace  with  the  phenomenal  growth  of  population  and 
material  resources.  This  growth  is  manifest  alike  in  num- 
bers, in  culture,  in  influence  upon  the  general  religious  life 
of  the  nation,  in  home  and  foreign  evangelization,  in  edu- 
cational institutions  and  their  work,  and  in  the  quality  and 
quantity  of  literary  product. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   TRIENNIAL    CONVENTION   (1814-45).^ 

The  missionary  spirit  had  been  increasing  so  rapidly 
within  the  last  few  years  of  the  preceding  period  that, 
apart  from  the  event  that  sent  a  wave  of  enthusiasm  from 
Maine  to  Georgia,  energetic  measures  for  the  fulfillment  of 
the  great  commission  could  not  long  have  been  deferred. 
The  denomination  had  gained  important  moral  victories 
in  the  recent  past  and  stood  forth  prominently  as  one  of 
the  great  aggressive  religious  forces  of  the  land.  It  had 
been  greatly  prospered  within  the  first  decade  of  the  cent- 
ury and  had  doubled  its  membership  in  a  few  years.  It 
was  becoming  conscious  as  never  before  of  the  greatness 
of  its  opportunities  and  responsibilities.  American  Bap- 
tists had  been  deeply  impressed  by  the  w^ork  of  Carey  and 
his  as.sociates  and  had  given  liberally  of  their  means  for 
the  furtherance  of  this  work.  The  mi.ssionary  zeal  of  a 
group  of  Andover  and  Williams  College  students  had  re- 
sulted in  the  organization  of  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign   Missions  (18 10)  and  the  sending 

1  On  this  and  the  following  chapter,  cf.  "  Bapt.  Miss.  Mag.";  "  Bapt. 
Memorial";  "  Bapt.  H.  Miss,  in  N.  A.,  1832-1882";  "  Reports"  of  the 
Triennial  Convention,  the  Home  and  For.  Miss.  Societies,  Publication  Soc, 
Am.  and  For.  Bib.  Soc,  and  Bib.  Union  ;  Bitting,  "  Bib.  Soc.  and  the  Bapt."  ; 
"Bapt.  and  the  Nat.  Centenary";  "Hist.  Am.  Bapt.  Pub.  Soc";  Bene- 
dict, "  Fifty  Years  among  the  Bapt."  ;  biographies  of  Judson,  Mercer,  Bald- 
win, Rice,  Peck,  Wayland,  Colgate,  Cone,  Fuller,  Poindexter,  Stow,  etc.  ; 
Cathcart;  Campbell ; 'Holcombe,  "Ala.  Bapt.";  "  Hist,  of  the  Bapt.  Den. 
in  Ga."  ;  Duncan  ;  Paxton  ;  "  First  Cent,  of  the  First  Bapt.  Ch.  of  Richmond, 
Va." ;  and  "  Two  Cent.  First  Bapt.  Ch.  of  S.  C." 

388 


Chap,  ii.]  COXl'EKSIOX  OF    THE  Ji'DSOXS.  389 

forth  of  Judson,  Newell,  Hall,  Nott,  and  Rice  (February, 
18 1 2).  Many  American  Baptists  had  no  doubt  been  led 
thereby  to  inquire  whether  God  had  not  a  work  for  them 
to  do  in  heathen  lands. 

During  the  voyage  to  India,  Judson  and  his  wife  were 
led,  through  a  study  of  the  Scriptures,  to  change  their 
views  with  reference  to  the  subjects  and  the  mode  of 
baptism,  and  on  their  arrival  in  India  were  baptized  by 
Ward,  September  6,  181 2.  Rice,  who  had  taken  passage 
by  another  vessel,  when  he  learned  of  the  trying  yet 
blessed  experience  of  his  fellow-missionaries,  began  at 
once  to  examine  the  grounds  on  which  infant  baptism  w'as 
commonly  justified,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was 
not  only  without  Scriptural  warrant,  but  that  it  also  in- 
volved a  perversion  of  an  ordinance  of  Christ.  He  was 
accordingly  baptized  by  Ward  on  November  i,  181 2.  It 
may  be  readily  surmised  that  they  did  not  take  this  im- 
portant step  without  duly  considering  the  grave  responsi- 
bility in\'olved.  They  had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in 
awakening  an  interest  in  foreign  missions  among  the  Con- 
gregationalists  of  America  and  in  bringing  about  the 
organization  of  what  was  to  become  one  of  the  greatest 
of  missionary  societies.  The  dismay  and  the  indignation  of 
those  that  had  been  led  by  them  to  enlist  in  this  work  and 
to  send  them  out,  with  the  discouragement  of  many  friends 
of  missions,  they  doubtless  expected.  Yet  loyalty  to  Christ 
required  them  to  face  the  reproach  of  being  regarded  as 
disloyal  to  their  brethren. 

On  August  31st  Judson  addressed  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Thomas  Baldwin,  of  Boston,  acknowledging  the  help  he 
had  received  from  writings  of  his,  and  inclosing  a  copy  of 
his  application  to  Dr.  Carey  for  baptism.  In  the  latter 
the  following  statement  occurs  :  "  My  inquiries  commenced 
during  my  passage  from  America,  and,  after  much  labori- 


390  THE  BAPTISTS.  [I'kr.  hi. 

ous  research  and  painful  trial,  .  .  .  have  issued  in  entire 
conviction  that  tlie  iinmcrsion  of  a  professing  believer  is 
the  only  Christian  baptism.  In  these  exercises  I  have  not 
been  alone.  Mrs.  Judson  has  been  engaged  in  a  similar 
examination,  and  has  come  to  the  same  conclusion."  In 
a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  the  American  Board  he  makes 
a  manly  and  straightforward  but  thoroughly  conciliatory 
statement  of  his  change  of  conviction  and  his  withdrawal 
from  the  service  of  the  Board.  He  speaks  of  the  dissolu- 
tion of  his  connection  with  the  Board  of  Commissioners 
and  separation  from  his  dear  missionary  brethren  as  "  the 
most  distressing  events  that  have  ever  befallen  me." 
"  Whether  the  Baptist  churches  in  America  will  com- 
passionate my  situation,  I  know  not."  In  a  second  letter 
to  Dr.  Baldwin  (September  ist)  he  wrote:  "Should  there 
be  formed  a  Baptist  society  for  the  support  of  a  mission  in 
these  parts,  I  shall  be  ready  to  consider  myself  their  mis- 
sionary." In  a  letter  of  the  same  date  to  Dr.  Bolles,  pastor  of 
the  Salem  Baptist  church,  he  shows  that  he  had  thought 
of  the  duty  of  Baptists  in  the  foreign  field  before  his  em- 
barkation :  "I  recollect  that,  during  a  short  interview  I 
had  with  you  in  Salem,  I  suggested  the  formation  of  a 
society  among  the  Baptists  in  America  for  the  support  of 
foreign  missions,  in  imitation  of  the  exertions  of  your 
English  brethren.  Little  did  I  then  expect  to  be  person- 
ally concerned  in  such  an  attempt."  After  narrating  his 
experiences  and  the  necessity  that  existed  for  his  severing 
his  connection  with  the  Board  of  Commissioners,  he  pro- 
ceeds :  "  Under  these  circumstances  I  look  to  you.  Alone 
in  this  foreign  heathen  land,  I  make  my  appeal  to  those 
whom,  with  their  permission,  I  will  call  my  Baptist  brethren 
in  the  United  States." 

Luther  Rice,  who   was  thought,  as   Carey  relates,  "  to 
be  the  most   obstinate  friend   of  pedobaptism  of  any  of 


Chap,  ii.]  THE  NEWS  REACHES  AMERICA.  39 1 

the  missionaries,"  soon  followed   Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson  in 
submitting-  to  baptism  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  Ward. 

The  difficulties  encountered  by  Judson  in  securing  en- 
trance to  a  suitable  field  of  labor,  and  the  way  in  which 
he  was  led  to  Burmah,  where  his  great  life-work  was  to 
be  accomplished,  cannot  here  be  narrated.  Rice  resolved 
to  return  to  America  in  order  to  make  proper  arrange- 
ments with  the  Board  of  Commissioners  and  to  enHst  the 
sympathies  of  the  Baptists  in  Judson's  proposed  mission. 
It  was  his  intention  to  return  to  the  foreign  work  as  soon 
as  he  should  have  secured  a  basis  of  support. 

The  news  of  the  conversion  of  the  Judsons  reached 
America  in  January,  181  3.  Drs.  Baldwin  and  Bolles  lost 
no  time  in  informing  the  denomination  of  what  had  oc- 
curred and  inaugurating  organized  effort  for  the  support 
of  the  missionaries.  A  meeting  of  leading  Baptists  of 
Boston  and  vicinity  at  the  house  of  Ur.  Baldwin  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  "  The  Baptist  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  India  and  other  Foreign  Parts."  Dr.  Bald- 
win was  chosen  president  and  Daniel  Sharp  secretary. 
This  society  undertook  to  raise  money  for  the  support  of 
the  Judsons,  but  thought  it  would  be  advisable  for  a  time 
to  act  as  an  auxiliary  of  the  English  society.  The  English 
society,  however,  advised  independent  work.  Not  wish- 
ing to  assume  the  responsibility  of  organizing  a  general 
society,  and  contemplating  the  probability  of  the  organ- 
ization of  similar  societies  in  other  parts  of  the  country, 
the  following  provision  was  inserted  in  the  constitution  of 
the  Boston  society  :  "  Should  societies  be  formed  in  other 
places,  ha\'ing  the  same  objects  in  view,  the  board  would 
appoint  one  or  more  persons  to  unite  with  delegates  from 
such  other  societies  in  forming  a  General  Committee,  in 
order  more  effectually  to  accomplish  the  important  objects 
contemplated  by  this  institution." 


392 


THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  m. 


Other  societies  followed,  especially  after  the  arrival  (in 
the  summer  of  1813)  of  Luther  Rice,  who  was  requested 
by  the  New  England  brethren  to  visit  the  Eastern,  Middle, 
and  Southern  States  for  the  purpose  of  forming  local  so- 
cieties and  preparing  the  way  for  united  effort.      One  of 
the  most  vigorous  and   influential   of   these   societies  was 
that   formed    by    the    Savannah    Association    (comprising 
churches  in   Georgia  and  South   Carolina)   in   November. 
1813.       Dr.   W.   B.   Johnson   was    its   president   and    Dr. 
W.   T.   Brantly   its    corresponding  secretary.     This   body 
addressed  a  remarkable   circular  "  to    the    inhabitants   of 
Georgia,    and    the    adjacent    parts    of    South    Carolina." 
After   a   most    eloquent    statement    of   the   obligation    of 
Christians  to   engage   in   efforts  for  the  evangelization  of 
the  world,  and  of  the  providential  circumstances  that  called 
for  immediate  action,  the  document  proceeds:  "  Since  the  . 
secession  of  our  dear  brethren.  Rice,  Judson  and  lady,   .    .    . 
several  missionary  societies  have  been  formed  by  the  Bap- 
tists in  America.      These  societies  have  for  their  object  the 
establishment  and  support   of  foreign  missions  ;  and   it  is 
contemplated  that  delegates  from  them  all  will  convene  in 
some  central  situation  in  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose 
of  organizing  an  efficient  and  practicable  plan,  on  which  the 
energies  of  the  whole  Baptist  denomination,  throughout 
America,  may  be  elicited,  combined,  and  directed,  in  one 
sacred  effort  for  sending  the  word    of   life  to  idolatrous 
lands.     What  a  sublime  spectacle  will  the  convention  pre- 
sent!     A  numerous  body  of  the  Lord's  people,  embracing 
in  their  connection  from  100,000  to  200,000  souls,  all  rising 
in  obedience  to  their  Lord,  and  meeting,  by  delegation,  in 
one  august  assembly,  solemnly  to  engage  in  one  sacred 
effort  for  effectuating  the   great  command  :  '  Go  ye  into 
all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature  ' ! 
What  spectacle  can  more  solemnly  interest  the  benevolent 


Chap.  ii.J  GEXERAL    COXVEXTIOX.  393 

heart?  What  can  be  more  acceptable  to  our  hea\enly 
Father?  .  .  .  God  has  put  great  honor  upon  us  in  giving 
us  so  favorable  an  opportunity  of  coming  up  '  to  the  help 
of  the  Lord  against  the  miglit)'.'  In  doing  so  he  has  con- 
ferred on  us  a  distinguished  pri\ilege.  Shall  we  be  insen- 
sible of  the  honor?  Shall  we  disregard  the  privilege? 
God  forbid!  Living  in  a  country  whose  generous  soil 
yields,  with  moderate  industry,  more  than  a  sufSciency  of 
the  comforts  of  life,  and  professing,  in  great  numbers,  to 
be  redeemed  from  our  iniquities,  our  obligations  to  exert 
ourselves  for  the  benefit  of  our  race  and  the  glory  of  God 
are  great  indeed.  .  .  .  And  we  trust,  in  our  attempt  to 
a  :t  in  this  manner,  no  sectarian  views,  no  indi\'idual  prej- 
udices, no  party  considerations,  will  have  leave  to  operate 
any  unfriendly  influence  upon  a  design  concei\'ed  in  disin- 
terested bene\'olence,  and  ha\ing  for  its  object  the  good 
of  man  and  the  honor  of  his  Creator." 

On  May  18,  18 14,  thirty-three  delegates,  representing 
eleven  States,  met  in  Philadelphia  with- a  view  to  effecting 
a  general  organization  for  foreign  mission  work.  Richard 
Furman,  of  South  Carolina,  probably  the  most  eminent 
and  influential  Baptist  minister  in  America  at  the  time, 
was  appointed  president,  and  Dr.  Thomas  Baldwin,  of 
Massachusetts,  secretary.  The  society  organized  took 
the  name  "  General  Missionary  Con\ention  of  the  Baptist 
Denomination  in  the  United  States  of  America  for  Foreign 
Missions."  It  was  arranged  that  it  should  meet  triennially 
(hence  the  designation  Triennial  Convention).  According 
to  its  constitution  it  vras  to  be  composed  of  delegates  from 
societies  contributing  not  less  than  $100  a  year  to  the 
funds  of  the  Convention.  A  Board  of  Commission- 
ers (twenty-one  in  number)  was  constituted  for  the  "  ex- 
ecutive part  of  the  missionary  concern."  Dr.  Baldwin 
was  chosen  first  president  of  the  board  and  Dr.  William 


394  ^^^^   BAPTISTS.  [I'KR.  111. 

StauL,rhton,  of  Philadelphia,  corresponding"  secretary.  It 
was  arranged  that  PhiladeljDhia  should  be  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  board.  In  1822,  with  the  opening  of  Colum- 
bian College  under  the  auspices  of  the  Convention,  the 
seat  of  the  board  was  transferred  to  Washington,  where 
it  remained  till  the  severance  of  the  direct  relation  be- 
tween the  college  and  the  board  in  1826,  when  it  was 
removed  to  Boston. 

The  Judsons,  who  by  this  time  had  begun  work  in 
Burmah,  were  accepted  as  missionaries,  and  Rice  was  ap- 
pointed agent  of  the  Convention  to  visit  the  churches  on 
behalf  of  the  foreign  mission  cause. 

The  bringing  of  the  denomination  together  in  so  noble  a 
cause  constitutes  one  of  the  great  events  in  the  history  of 
the  Baptists.  Such  a  union  had  been  for  years  an  object 
of  endeavor  on  the  part  of  a  few  of  the  foreseeing  leaders 
of  the  denomination ;  but  to  bring  about  a  realization  of 
such  aspirations  required  the  enthusiasm  awakened  by  the 
accession  of  Judson  and  Rice  to  the  Baptist  ranks  and  the 
providential  opening  up  of  Baptist  foreign  mission  work. 

Rice  proved  a  most  effective  agent.  Possessed  of  a 
robust  constitution,  he  was  able  to  endure  an  incredible 
amount  of  rough  travel,  and  his  eloquence  and  enthusiasm 
won  the  hearts  of  multitudes  to  the  cause  he  had  espoused. 
Through  his  zealous  efforts,  seconded  by  those  of  the  noble 
ministers  who  had  heartily  embraced  the  cause,  the  con- 
tributions, which  in  1 8 14  amounted  to  $1239.29,  reached 
$12,236.84  for  the  year  1816.  Multitudes  of  auxiliary 
societies  were  organized,  and  many  of  the  Associations 
made  foreign  missions  one  of  their  leading  objects.  The 
early  stages  of  the  missionary  movement  synchronized 
with  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  into  which  Baptists  en- 
tered with  enthusiasm.  They  seem  to  have  contemplated 
the  possibility  of  the  loss  of  the  civil  and  religious  freedom 


CnAi'.  11.]  MIXISTERIAL    EDUCATIOA'.  395 

that  had  been  gained  by  the  Revohition  as  a  result  of 
British  triumph,  and  their  zeal  for  American  rights  was 
unbounded.  By  181  7  the  war  was  a  matter  of  history, 
and  thanksgiving  was  the  order  of  the  day. 

The  second  meetiiig  of  the  Triennial  Convention  was 
held  in  Philadelphia  in  181 7,  and  was  in  many  respects 
one  of  the  most  important.  Foreign  missions  had  found 
many  friends,  but  an  amount  of  opposition  had  manifested 
itself  in  some  quarters  that  augured  ill  for  the  unit}'  of  the 
denomination.  Rice  had  become  convinced,  as  a  result 
of  his  four  years  of  travel  among  the  churches,  that  the 
great  enemy  of  foreign  missions  and  of  denominational 
progress  was  ignorance,  and  that  a  condition  of  large  suc- 
cess in  foreign  missions  was  an  educated  ministry.  Men 
must  be  educated  for  the  foreign  field,  and  educated 
pastors  must  teach  the  people  God's  truth  and  enlighten 
their  minds  as  to  their  responsibility  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  world.  It  seemed  to  him  and  to  many  others  that 
the  most  efTective  way  to  promote  the  foreign  mission 
cause  would  be  to  found  a  great  national  Baptist  educa- 
tional institution.  The  Convention  of  1 8 14  had  recog- 
nized the  importance  of  ministerial  education.  The  Trien- 
nial Convention  of  181  7  took  the  matter  up  in  an  efTective 
manner.  Foremost  in  pressing  the  claims  of  ministerial 
education  on  the  attention  of  the  Convention  was  the 
venerated  Furman.  The  following  article  was  at  this 
time  incorporated  in  the  constitution  :  "  That  when  com- 
petent and  distinct  funds  shall  have  been  received  for  the 
purpose,  the  board  from  these,  without  resorting  at  all  to 
the  mission  funds,  shall  proceed  to  institute  a  classical  and 
theological  seminary,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  young  men 
who,  in  the  judgment  of  the  churches  of  which  they  are 
members,  and  of  the  board,  possess  gifts  and  graces  suited 
to  the  gospel  ministry." 


396  THE   BAPTISTS.  Ll'i-i-  I"" 

A  committee  appointed  by  the  Com  eiition  reported  to 
the  board  in  May,  1818,  that  "  no  adequate  reason  can  be 
assigned  for  further  delay.  The  pubHc  arc  entitled  to 
expect  some  vigorous  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  board. 
The  Convention  has  left  this  business  to  their  sacred 
charge.  Numerous  youth  are  waiting  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  privileges  of  a  literary  and  theological  institution, 
and  the  widening  sphere  of  missionary  effort  already  un- 
dertaken renders  an  accession  of  godly  and  educated 
youth  highly  desirable."  Dr.  William  Staughton  and 
Rev.  I  rah  Chase  were  invited  to  take  charge  '  f  an  insti- 
tution that. had  as  yet  no  resources  beyond  the  good-will 
of  the  denomination  as  expressed  through  the  Convention. 
After  educating  a  number  of  men  who  proved  able  and 
useful,  this  institution  was  merged  in  Columbian  College 
at  its  opening  in  1822.  It  graduated  its  first  classes  in 
1 82  I.  Funds  for  the  assistance  of  students  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  institution  were  collected  chiefly  by  Luther 
■Rice,  who  advocated  the  cause  of  education  with  all  the 
enthusiasm  of  his  nature,  along  with  that  of  foreign  mis- 
sions. 

Before  the  Convention  of  181  7  it  had  also  become  evident 
to  leading  minds  that  the  permanence  and  success  of 
foreign  mission  work  required  that  attention  be  given 
in  an  organized  way  to  home  evangelization,  and  that  the 
latter  was  as  necessary  as  the  former  to  the  fulfillment  of 
the  great  commission.  As  early  as  181 5  Luther  Rice 
had  said :  "  Not  only  do  I  conceive  it  proper  that  a 
mission  should  be  established  in  the  West,  on  account  of 
the  importance  of  the  region  in  itself,  but  indispensably 
necessary  to  satisfy  the  wishes  and  expectations  of  pious 
people  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States."  Rice  had  in 
mind  particularly  the  Missouri  Territory,  and  he  urged 
the   board    to  take  .speedy  action.      The  matter  was  de- 


Chap,  ii.]  HOME  MISSIOX   WORK.  397 

ferred,  however,  until  the  meeting  of  tlie  Convention  in 
181  7,  when  the  constitution  was  so  altered  as  to  leave  it 
at  the  discretion  of  the  board  "  to  appropriate  a  portion  of 
their  funds  to  domestic  missionary  purposes,  in  such  parts 
of  this  country  where  the  seed  of  the  word  may  be  ad- 
vantageously cast,  and  which  mission  societies,  on  a  small 
scale,  do  not  effectively  reach."  Under  this  authorization 
John  M.  Peck  and  James  E.  Welch,  both  of  whom  had 
studied  under  Dr.  Staughton,  were  solemnly  designated 
to  mission  work  in  the  West.  In  sending  forth  these 
evangelists  the  board  expressed  the  conviction  that  "  west- 
ern as  well  as  eastern  regions  are  given  to  the  Son  of  God 
as  an  inheritance,  and  that  liis  gospel  will  triumph  amid 
the  settlers  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  sublimer  Missouri, 
and  extend  to  the  red  inhabitants  of  the  wilderness." 
Welch,  after  laboring  successfully  in  the  West  for  three 
years,  returned  to  the  East  and  became  agent  for  the 
American  Sunday-school  Union.  In  1848  he  remo\ed 
to  Missouri,  where  he  labored  for  many  years  in  planting 
and  building  up  churches.  Peck  might  well  be  called  the 
apostle  of  the  West.  He  gave  his  entire  life  from  the  time 
of  his  appointment  to  the  planting  and  fostering  of  Baptist 
principles  in  Missouri,  Illinois,  and  adjacent  territories. 
After  1 820  he  was  for  some  time  in  the  employ  of  the 
Massachusetts  Baptist  Missionary  Society.  At  Rock  Isl- 
and, 111.,  he  established  (1827)  a  seminary  of  general  and 
theological  instruction,  which  at  one  time  had  a  hundred 
students  and  which  was  afterward  amalgamated  with  the 
institution  at  Upper  Alton,  afterward  to  become  Shurtleff 
College.  As  a  means  of  forwarding  his  educational  and 
missionary  work,  and  of  counteracting  the  errors  of  Dan- 
iel Parker  and  of  Alexander  Campbell,  he  published  (1829 
onward)  a  periodical,  under  various  names.  No  man  in 
his  time  was  so  w^ell  acquainted  with  the  territory  in  which 


:.C)8  THE   BAPTISTS.  [1'er.  iu. 

lie  labored,  and  he  made  contributions  of  the  utmost  value 
to  the  denominational  and  general  history  of  this  region. 

Thus  a  national  educational  and  a  national  home  mission 
movement  had  by  1817  grown  out  of  the  efforts  to  estab- 
lish on  a  firm  basis  the  national  foreign  mission  enterprise. 
During  the  next  triennial  period  Rice  labored  with  con- 
suming zeal  for  the  establishment  of  a  national  Baptist 
university  at  the  nation's  capital.  He  fully  appreciated 
the  vast  advantages  that  would  accrue  to  the  denomina- 
tion from  the  establishment  of  an  institution  of  high  grade 
in  the  city  of  Washington,  and  the  economy  that  would  be 
involved  in  utilizing  the  educational  appliances  that  were 
already  available  and  were  sure  to  increase  in  importance 
and  value  at  the  center  of  national  government.  For  a 
time  the  idea  of  a  great  national  Baptist  university  gained 
such  a  hold  upon  the  denominational  sympathies  as  almost 
to  dispute  the  first  place  with  the  foreign  mission  cause. 
State  enterprises,  that  had  previously  occupied  denomina- 
tional attention,  were  for  some  time  kept  in  abeyance. 
Education  societies  were  organized  in  many  localities,  and 
considerable  money  had  been  raised  for  this  purpose  before 
the  Triennial  Convention  of  1 820.  An  eligible  site  was 
purchased  in  Washington,  and  buildings  were  projected 
that  "  were  intended  to  range  with  the  cardinal  points  of 
the  compass,  and  to  exhibit  the  best  possible  view  from 
every  direction,  combining  economy,  utility,  convenience, 
and  magnificence." 

Most  of  the  responsibility  in  planning  and  contracting 
for  the  buildings  and  equipment,  and  in  arranging  for  the 
support  of  the  faculty,  was  allowed  to  rest  upon  Rice,  who 
still  bore  the  responsibility  of  raising  funds  for  missions. 
Full  of  enthusiasm,  and  ever  sanguine  even  in  the  face  of 
discouragements,  he  went  far  beyond  the  funds  available 
for  the  purpose  and  involved  the  institution  in  debt.      At 


Chap,  ii.]  COLUMBIAX  COLLEGE.  399 

a  meeting  of  the  board  in  April,  1821,  it  was  decided  to 
open  the  college  for  students  in  theology  in  September, 
1 82 1,  and  for  students  in  arts  in  January,  1822.  The  out- 
lines of  a  curriculum  were  drafted  on  this  occasion,  and  a 
theological  faculty  was  nominated,  consisting  of  William 
Staughton,  president,  and  Irah  Chase  and  Alva  Woods, 
professors.  It  was  further  resolved  to  nominate  two  pro- 
fessors for  the  classical  department.  Several  eminent  men 
in  Washington,  otherwise  employed,  agreed  to  give  courses 
of  lectures  gratuitously,  and  a  salaried  professor  and  a 
tutor  were  added  before  the  opening  in  January,  1822. 
Baptists  had  the  sympathy  and  support  of  such  leading 
statesmen  as  John  Ouincy  Adams  and  James  Monroe  in 
this  enterprise,  and  the  former  especially  gave  large  prac- 
tical aid.  Internally  the  college  prospered.  A  large 
number  of  able  students  entered  its  classes.  But  by  1826 
it  had  become  inextricably  involved  in  debt.  So  desperate 
had  become  the  financial  situation  that  mission  funds  were 
seriously  drawn  upon  to  meet  necessary  payments.  As 
Rice  had  been  foremost  in  collecting,  handling,  and  des- 
ignating funds,  he  was  obliged  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the 
blame  that  fell  upon  the  board  when  the  finances  came 
to  be  investigated.  It  was  commonly  agreed  that  Rice 
was  among  the  most  unselfish  of  men,  but  was  lacking  in 
business  capacity  and  had  allowed  himself  to  plan  ex- 
penditures on  a  scale  far  beyond  what  prudence  would 
have  dictated.  The  accounts  of  receipts  and  expenditures 
were  very  loosely  kept,  and  it  was  not  easy  to  determine 
precisely  what  funds  had  been  given  for  missions  and 
education  respectively.  Some  were  so  uncharitable  as  to 
suspect  Rice  and  others  of  a  dishonest  use  of  funds;  but 
he  showed  his  disinterested  devotion  to  the  cause  by  giv- 
ing into  the  funds  of  the  college  not  only  the  money  he 
had  been  able  to  save  during  twelve  years  of  arduous  serv- 


400  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

ice  at  a  salary  of  $400  a  year,  but  also  a  patrimony  of 
$2000  or  $3000.  Removed  from  the  responsible  agency, 
he  continued  till  his  death,  in  1836,  to  labor  assiduously, 
without  remuneration,  for  the  institution  that  he  loved 
with  rare  devotion,  and  when  dying  requested  that  his 
horse  and  buggy,  his  only  possessions,  be  sent  to  the 
agent  of  the  college. 

The  funds  of  the  Convention  were  further  drawn  upon 
by  the  journalistic  enterprises  of  the  agent.  The  value  of 
religious  journalism  was  fully  appreciated  by  this  enter- 
prising man.  He  hoped  that  the  "Columbian  Star"  (a 
weekly  begun  in  1822)  and  the  "  Latter  Day  Luminary  " 
(first  a  quarterly  and  afterward  a  monthly,  18 16  onward) 
would  more  than  pay  their  way  through  their  subscription 
lists  and  the  additional  interest  they  would  create  in  the 
objects  of  the  Convention.  In  this,  as  in  many  of  his 
other  projects,  he  was  too  sanguine. 

Before  the  crisis  referred  to  had  been  reached  it  had 
been  decided  to  abandon  the  theological  department  of 
the  college  and  to  turn  this  work  over  to  the  Massachu- 
setts Baptist  Education  Society,  that  hoped,  with  the 
cooperation  of  the  other  New  England  States,  to  make 
suitable  provision  for  its  maintenance.  A  charter  was  se- 
cured in  1826,  and  Newton  Theological  Institution  opened 
its  doors  for  students  in  1825.  Irah  Chase  was  transferred 
from  Columbian  College  as  president,  and  Henry  J.  Ripley 
was  appointed  as  his  colleague. 

So  profound  was  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  denomination 
with  the  diversion  of  missionary  funds  to  educational  pur- 
poses that  it  was  thought  advisable  in  1826  to  dissociate 
the  college  as  completely  as  possible  from  the  Convention, 
the  right  of  nominating  fifty  persons  from  whom  the  board 
should  be  chosen  being  the  only  coimection  retained. 

The  demands  of  the  work  undertaken  among  the  Indians 


Chap,  ii.]  A'£STAVC7V0X  OF  EFFORT.  40 1 

of  America  were  found  to  be  far  greater  than  the  Conven- 
tion had  counted  on,  and  the  demands  of  the  foreign  work 
were  rapidly  increasing.  It  was  determined  in  1826  to 
concentrate  attention  more  and  more  upon  foreign  work, 
and,  apart  from  maintaining  the  Indian  mission  stations  in 
Michigan,  New  York,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Georgia, 
opened  some  time  before,  to  leave  domestic  evangelization 
to  other  agencies.  The  chief  cause  of  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Convention  from  domestic  mission  work  was  the  wide- 
spread dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  pioneer  Baptist  minis- 
ters and  their  churches  in  the  West,  that  was  soon  to  de- 
velop into  pronounced  anti-missionary  sentiment. 

It  will  not  be  practicable  to  give  in  any  detail  the  history 
of  the  work  on  the  foreign  field.  The  labors  and  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  Judsons,  the  encouraging  and  th.e  discour- 
aging features  of  their  work  during  the  first  two  decades, 
are  familiar  to  all  students  of  foreign  missions.  Judson 
won  for  liimself  a  place  among  the  greatest  missionaries  of 
the  ages,  and  for  the  cause  of  Christ  some  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  modern  times.  The  mission  was  reinforced 
from  time  to  time  by  new  appointments  of  noble  men  and 
women,  and  at  times  seemed  likely  to  be  utterly  extin- 
guished and  the  missionaries  destroyed  by  the  hostility  of 
the  despotic  government.  But  faith  and  perseverance 
triumphed,  not  without  sufferings,  however,  that  resulted 
in  premature  deaths  that  may  well  be  called  martyrdoms. 
Up  to  1828  there  was  little  to  show  for  the  toils  and  suffer- 
ings of  the  heroic  missionaries  and  of  the  friends  of  missions 
at  home  ;  but  the  martyr  sufferings  of  Ava  and  Oung-pen- 
la  had  stirred  the  hearts  of  American  Baptists  and  prepared 
the  way  for  a  great  enlargement  of  the  work.  Foundation 
work  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  mastery  of  the  lan- 
guage and  in  Bible  translation  had  been  accomplished,  and 
enough  converts  had  been  won  to  demonstrate  the  fact 


402  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

that  even  in  Burmah  the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation. 

About  1815  the  colored  Baptists  of  Richmond  became 
fired  with  missionary  enthusiasm,  organized  the  Rich- 
mond Baptist  African  Missionary  Society,  and  began  at 
once  to  raise  funds  for  a  mission  in  Africa.  Lott  Carey 
and  Collin  Teague  were  sent  out  with  funds  thus  raised 
under  the  direction  of  the  general  board,  and  began  work 
in  1822  at  Monrovia  in  Liberia,  where  a  number  of  Amer- 
ican freedmen  were  attempting  to  establish  a  colony. 
Carey  was  a  man  of  marked  ability  and  high  character, 
and  his  labors  were  greatly  blessed.  The  triumphs  and 
discouragements  of  this  mission  cannot  be  here  detailed. 

The  expenditures  of  the  board  during  the  year  ending 
April,  1827,  were  $15,408.32.  The  Indian  (American) 
schools  were  largely  supported  by  government  grants. 

Among  the  important  results  of  the  stimulus  given  to 
denominational  life  by  the  foreign  mission  movement, 
through  the  Triennial  Convention  and  the  agencies  it 
employed,  was  the  formation  of  State  Conventions.  Mas- 
sachusetts had  State  denominational  organization  as  early 
as  1802.  Under  the  impulse  of  the  missionary  movement 
South  Carolina  followed  in  1821.  The  controlling  influ- 
ence in  the  formation  of  the  Convention  was  that  of  Rich- 
ard Furman.  In  December,  1821,  delegates  from  the 
Charleston,  Edgefield,  and  Savannah  River  Associations 
met  at  Columbia  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  State  or- 
ganization. It  was  designed  to  be  "  a  bond  of  union,  a 
center  of  intelligence,  and  a  means  of  vigorous,  united 
exertion  in  the  cause  of  God,  for  the  promotion  of  truth 
and  righteousness;  that  so  those  energies,  intellectual, 
moral,  and  pecuniary,  which  God  has  bestowed  upon  the 
denomination  in  this  State,  might  be  concentrated,  and 
brought   into  vigorous,   useful   operation."     "The   grand 


Chap,  ii.]  STATE    COXVEXTIOXS.  403 

objects"  of  the  Convention  are  stated  in  the  constitution 
to  be  "  the  promotion  of  evangeHcal  and  useful  knowl- 
edge, by  means  of  religious  education ;  the  support  of 
missionary  service  among  the  destitute;  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  measures  promotive  of  the  true  interest  of  the 
churches  of  Christ  in  general,  and  of  their  union,  love,  and 
harmony  in  particular."  "The  organization  and  support 
of  a  seminary  of  learning  in  this  State,  for  the  gratuitous 
education  of  indigent,  pious  young  men  for  the  gospel 
ministry,  on  a  plan  in  accordance  with  the  interests  of 
that  established  by  the  denomination  at  large  [Columbian 
College],  .  .  .  shall  be  considered  by  this  body  as  an  ob- 
ject of  primary  importance."  The  Convention  promised 
"  to  use  their  vigorous  efforts  to  engage  the  most  able, 
pious,  and  suitable  ministers  of  the  denomination  in  the 
prosecution  of  missionary  service."  The  encouragement 
of  Sunday-schools  and  the  religious  instruction  of  children 
in  families  are  other  specified  objects  of  the  Convention. 

The  fact  that  only  three  of  the  seven  Associations  par- 
ticipated in  the  organization  of  the  Convention  is  an  indi- 
cation of  the  opposition  to  the  advance  movement  that 
was  already  becoming  aggressive  in  this  as  well  as  in  other 
States. 

The  example  of  South  Carolina  was  speedily  followed 
by  Georgia,  and  in  a  few  years  most  of  the  older  States 
had  their  Conventions,  with  objects  similar  to  those  of  the 
South  Carolina.  In  nearly  all  the  States  the  most  bitter 
opposition  was  encountered,  and  in  some  the  opposition 
was  so  strong  as  to  cause  the  postponement  of  State  or- 
ganization for  a  number  of  years.  Particulars  with  refer- 
ence to  the  anti-mission  movement  must  be  deferred  to  a 
later  chapter.  In  Georgia  vigorous  efTorts  had  been  made 
during  the  first  decade  of  the  century  for  general  organi- 
zation in  the  interest  of  education  and    missions.      Not- 


404  ^-^^-^   BAPTISTS.  [I'l'^i-  HI- 

withstanding  earnest  efforts  to  secure  the  cooperation  of 
all  the  Georgia  Associations  in  the  formation  of  the  Gen- 
eral Association  (called  the  Convention  from  1827)  only- 
two  sent  delegates  to  Powelton  in  June,  1822.  The 
Georgia  Association  was  represented  by  Jesse  Mercer, 
W.  T.  Brantly,  W.  Hilman,  James  Armstrong,  and  J.  P. 
Marshall ;  the  Ocmulgee  by  Cyrus  White.  A  number  of 
other  brethren  were  present  as  individuals  and  took  part 
in  the  deliberations,  among  them  Adiel  Sherwood,  after- 
ward to  become  one  of  the  most  eminent  leaders  of  the 
denomination.  This  was  a  small  representation  for  the 
inauguration  of  so  important  an  enterprise ;  but  men  like 
Mercer  and  Brantly  felt  that  a  beginning  must  be  made. 
A  constitution  was  adopted  in  which  "  the  specific  objects  " 
are  stated  to  be:  "i.  To  unite  the  influence  and  pious  in- 
telligence of  Georgia  Baptists,  and  thereby  to  facilitate 
their  union  and  cooperation.  2.  To  form  and  encourage 
plans  for  the  revival  of  experimental  and  practical  religion 
in  the  State  and  elsewhere.  3.  To  promote  uniformity  of 
sentiment  and  discipline.  4.  To  aid  in  giving  effect  to  the 
useful  plans  of  the  Association.  5.  To  afford  an  oppor- 
tunity to  those  who  may  conscientiously  think  it  their  duty 
to  form  a  fund  for  the  education  of  pious  young  men  who 
may  be  called  by  the  Spirit  and  their  churches  to  the 
Christian  ministry.  6.  To  correspond  with  bodies  of 
other  religious  denominations  on  topics  of  general  interest 
to  the  Redeemer's  kingdom,  and  to  promote  pious  and 
useful  education  in  the  Baptist  denomination." 

An  eloquent  statement,  penned,  no  doubt,  by  the  zeal- 
ous and  accomplished  Brantly,  was  sent  forth  to  the  de- 
nomination throughout  the  State,  explaining  the  objects 
of  the  General  Association,  vindicating  it  from  the  objec- 
tions that  were  likely  to  be  raised  against  it,  and  pleading 
for  active  cooperation.      In  the  face  of  an  appalling  amount 


Chap,  ii.]  NEW  ENGLAND    CONVENTIONS.  405 

of  unreasonable  opposition  the  State  organization  gradually 
won  its  way  and  became  highly  influential. 

In  New  England  little  of  the  anti-missionary  spirit  man- 
ifested itself  and  State  organizations  were  formed  with 
comparative  ease.  The  dates  of  organization  were :  Con- 
necticut, 1823;  Maine,  1824;  Vermont,  1825;  New  Hamp- 
shire, 1826.  Various  general  missionary  and  other  societies 
were  at  work  in  New  York  before  1821,  when  the  State 
Missionary  Convention  was  organized.  In  1825,  through 
the  union  of  this  body  witli  the  Hamilton  Missionary 
Society,  the  State  Convention,  on  its  present  basis,  was 
formed.  Virginia  had  long  enjoj-ed  united  denomina- 
tional action.  The  General  Meeting  of  Correspondence, 
which  had  taken  the  place  of  the  General  Committee  in 
1800,  gave  place  to  the  Baptist  General  Association  of 
Virginia  in  1823.  Here,  also,  powerful  and  determined 
opposition  was  encountered.  Out  of  the  twenty  Associa- 
tions in  the  State,  with  a  membership  of  about  forty  thou- 
sand, only  fifteen  delegates,  representing  a  few  of  the  As- 
sociations, were  present  at  the  meeting  for  organization. 
Pennsylvania  secured  State  organization  in  1827,  and  New 
Jersey  in  1830.  In  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri  the  opposition  was  so  powerful  as  to  baffle 
the  efforts  of  the  friends  of  missions  and  education  to  effect 
State  organization.  The  Conventions,  wlien  formed,  rep- 
resented a  small  fraction  of  the  denomination,  but  by  faith 
and  perseverance  they  have  been  able  to  draw  to  themselves 
the  strength  of  the  body.  After  repeated  failures,  organiza- 
tion was  effected  in  North  Carolina  in  1830,  in  Tennessee 
in  1832,  in  Missouri  in  1834,  in  Kentucky  in  1832  and 
(after  the  dissolution  of  the  first  organization)  perma- 
nently in  1837. 

The  agitation  by  Luther  Rice  and  others  on  behalf  of  a 
national  Baptist  university  stimulated  the  desire  that  had 


406  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  hi. 

long  before  found  expression  in  se\'eral  of  the  States  for 
Baptist  institutions  of  learning.  This  strong  desire  for 
local  institutions,  together  with  the  discouragement  that 
resulted  from  the  unwise  and  almost  disastrous  financial 
management  of  Columbian  College,  caused  such  a  with- 
drawal of  interest  from  the  latter  as  seriously  to  threaten 
its  existence.  It  was  doubtless  a  mistake  to  attempt  to 
found  a  national  university  in  advance  of  the  establishment 
of  State  denominational  institutions. 

The  earliest  of  these  new  State  denominational  institu- 
tions to  appear  was  that  in  Maine.  In  1813  a  charter  had 
been  secured,  and  in  1818  Jeremiah  Chaplin  began  giving 
instruction  in  theology  and  other  branches  to  a  small  num- 
ber of  students  at  Waterville.  In  1820  this  school,  opened 
under  denominational  patronage,  assumed  college  func- 
tions. Instruction  was  given  in  theology  as  well  as  in  arts 
until  the  opening  of  Newton  Theological  Institution  in 
1825.  In  consideration  of  a  large  donation  by  Gardner 
Colby,  of  Massachusetts,  the  name  of  Waterville  College 
was  changed  to  Colby  University.  A  member  of  the 
first  graduating  class  in  1820  was  George  Dana  Board- 
man,  the  famous  missionary  to  the  Karens. 

The  early  interest  in  education  among  the  Baptists  of 
the  Charleston  Association  has  already  been  referred  to. 
After  the  organization  of  the  Convention  in  1821  earnest 
attention  was  given  to  the  establishment  of  a  seminary  of 
learning.  The  address  to  the  denomination  by  the  newly 
organized  Convention,  prepared  by  Richard  Furman,  em- 
phasized the  importance  of  ministerial  education  and  de- 
fended it  against  the  objections  that  existed  in  the  minds 
of  a  large  proportion  of  South  Carolina  Baptists.  The 
matter  was  discussed  even  more  fully  in  the  address  of  the 
next  year  (1822),  written  by  Dr.  W.  B.  Johnson.  It  was 
a  cherished  desire  of  the  South  Carolina  Baptist  leaders 


Chap,  ii.]         EDUCATIOX  IX  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  407 

that  a  college  should  be  founded  in  common  by  the  Bap- 
tists of  their  own  State  and  those  of  Georgia,  and  negotia- 
tions with  the  Georgia  Convention,  that  seemed  for  a  while 
likely  to  result  in  favorable  action,  were  conducted  (1824— 
26) ;  but  State  feeling  proved  an  insuperable  obstacle. 
Valuable  work  had  been  done  for  a  number  of  years  in 
ministerial  education  by  Dr.  John  M.  Roberts,  pastor  of 
the  High  Hills  of  Santee  church.  He  gave  gratuitous 
instruction  to  beneficiaries  of  the  Education  Fund  of  the 
Charleston  Association,  and  to  others,  both  before  and 
after  the  organization  of  the  Convention.  In  1826  the 
Furman  Academy  and  Theological  Institution  was  estab- 
lished by  the  Convention,  at  Edgefield,  with  J.  A.  Warne 
as  principal.  The  General  Committee  of  the  Charleston 
Association  cooperated  heartily  with  the  Convention  and 
transferred  to  the  institution  at  Edgefield  the  librar\'  that 
had  been  collected  for  the  use  of  students  for  the  ministry. 
The  new  enterprise  proved  a  comparative  failure.  After 
two  years  the  principal  resigned,  the  classical  department 
was  abandoned,  and  the  work  of  theological  instruction 
was  intrusted  to  J.  Hartwell,  at  the  High  Hills.  The 
Convention  of  1829  appointed  Hartwell  principal  of  the 
Furman  Theological  Institution,  and  in  1830  associated 
with  him  Samuel  Furman,  a  son  of  the  Charleston  pastor. 
A  building  was  erected,  a  large  number  of  students  gath- 
ered, and  success  seemed  assured.  But  difficulties  arose, 
and  in  1834  the  professors  resigned  and  the  work  was 
suspended.  The  next  experiment  was  made  in  Fairfield 
district  (1835),  and  combined  manual  labor  with  theologi- 
cal and  classical  instruction.  W.  E.  Bailey,  who  had  been 
professor  in  Charleston  College,  accepted  the  principalship, 
buildings  were  again  erected,  and  success  again  seemed 
assured.  Conflagration  (1837)  blasted  the  budding  hopes 
of  the  denomination.      The  principal  resigned  in  1838  and 


40 8  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

work  was  suspended  in  1840.  Theological  instruction  was 
resumed  in  1838  under  Dr.  Hooper,  who  had  resigned  a 
chair  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina.  J.  S.  Maginnis, 
afterward  prominently  connected  with  educational  work 
at  Hamilton  and  at  Rochester,  was  soon  afterward  called 
to  his  assistance.  Both  of  these  resigned  before  the  close 
of  1839,  the  former  accepting  a  position  in  the  South 
Carolina  College.  They  were  succeeded  by  J.  L.  Rey- 
nolds and  Jeremiah  Chaplin,  Jr.  The  latter  resigned  after 
a  short  period  of  service  and  became  well  known  in  New 
England  as  pastor  and  author.  The  former  was  to  be  for 
many  years  prominently  connected  with  the  educational 
work  of  South  Carolina.  The  institution  did  not  develop 
into  Furman  University  until  185  i. 

New  York  State  had  been  settled  very  rapidly  since  the 
beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Baptist  churches 
had  multiplied  through  immigration  from  New  England 
and  through  great  revivals.  By  181 7  there  were  in  the 
State  about  28,000  Baptist  church-members,  310  churches, 
and  only  230  ministers  of  all  shades  of  efficiency  and  in- 
efficiency. West  of  the  Hudson  there  were  only  three 
Baptist  ministers  that  had  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a 
collegiate  training,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  ministers 
were  illiterate.  Daniel  Hascall,  of  Hamilton,  began  early 
to  plan  for  the  removal  of  this  great  obstacle  to  denomi- 
national progress.  In  18 16  he  received  a  visit  from  Na- 
thaniel Kendrick,  then  of  Vermont,  and  discussed  with 
him  the  question  of  providing  educational  facilities  for  the 
growing  denomination.  Kendrick  settled  in  the  neighbor- 
hood the  next  year,  and  afterward  became  one  of  the  chief 
factors  in  the  solution  of  the  problem.  In  May,  181 7,  just 
as  the  importance  of  denominational  education  was  being 
impressed  upon  the  Triennial  Convention  by  Furman  and 
others,  five  or  six   brethren  met  at  the  house  of  Deacon 


Chap,  ii.]  ED  UC  ATI  OX  IX  XEIV    YORK.  409 

Samuel  Payne,  in  Hamilton,  to  converse,  pray,  and  plan 
for  the  beginning-  of  educational  work.  The  result  was 
that  a  call  was  issued  for  a  meeting  to  be  held  in  Hamilton 
in  the  following  September.  Thirteen  leading  brethren 
met  and  organized  the  Baptist  Education  Society  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  During  the  first  year  one  student, 
Jonathan  Wade,  was  assisted  to  the  extent  of  $27,121/. 
During  the  next  year  Eugenio  Kincaid,  afterward  to  be- 
come a  devoted  missionary,  was  added.  These  brethren 
enjoyed  private  instruction  only. 

Earnest  but  not  very  successful  efforts  were  made  to 
raise  funds  for  the  opening  of  a  college.  A  charter  was 
secured  at  the  session  of  the  legislature  for  181 8-19,  and 
it  was  decided  to  open  a  school  in  Hamilton  on  the  prom- 
ise that  $6000  should  be  raised  in  the  vicinity.  The  board 
was  ready  to  open  a  school  in  1820.  Vain  efforts  were 
made  to  secure  great  men  from  a  distance  for  the  prin- 
cipalship,  and  they  had  to  be  content  with  the  services  of 
Daniel  Hascall,  the  moving  spirit  in  the  enterprise.  He 
was  assisted  by  Zenas  Morse ;  and  Nathaniel  Kendrick, 
while  retaining  his  pastorate  at  Eaton,  gave  courses  of 
lectures.  In  1822  a  regular  class  in  divinity  was  organ- 
ized, with  Kendrick  for  instructor.  During  these  early 
years  Baptists  in  Vermont  and  Connecticut  cooperated  to 
a  considerable  extent  in  the  maintenance  and  patronage 
of  the  institution.  An  education  society  formed  by  the 
Baptists  of  New  York  City  and  vicinity  in  181  7  began  to 
cooperate  with  the  Hamilton  society  in  1822.  The  insti- 
tution gained  steadily  in  popular  favor,  buildings  were 
erected,  and  in  1828  the  faculty  was  enlarged  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  S.  S.  Whitman  and  Barnas  Sears,  the  latter 
to  become  a  denominational  leader.  In  183 1  A.  C.  Ken- 
drick, still  among  us  in  venerable  age  and  universally  be- 
loved  and    honored,    became   a   tutor   in   the    institution. 


410  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

Further  additions  to  the  faculty  and  extensions  of  the 
course  were  made  in  1833  and  in  1834,  and  the  institution 
took  its  place  among  the  best  hterary  and  theological 
schools  in  the  country,  a  position  which  it  has  well  sus- 
tained. Not  until  1839  were  the  doors  of  the  institution 
thrown  open  to  students  of  good  moral  character  not  having 
the  ministry  in  view.  The  idea  of  ministerial  education 
long  continued  to  dominate  the  policy  of  the  institution. 

Under  the  impulse  of  the  new  awakening  of  the  life  of 
the  denomination  through  the  united  effort  of  the  denomi- 
nation in  foreign  mission  work,  the  aspirations  of  leading 
Georgia  Baptists  after  local  educational  facilities,  thwarted 
in  the  earlier  time,  were  to  have  a  noble  fulfillment. 
Through  the  influence  of  Jesse  Mercer,  himself  one  of 
the  largest  contributors,  about  $20,000  were  given  by 
Georgia  Baptists  toward  the  establishment  of  Columbian 
College  before  the  inauguration  of  the  final  efl'orts  that 
resulted  in  the  founding  of  Mercer  University.  In  1827 
a  recommendation  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Gen- 
eral Association  (Convention)  was  adopted  "  that  each 
member  of  this  body,  and  several  ministering  brethren 
within  our  bounds,  be  requested  to  use  their  exertions  to 
advance  this  object  [the  raising  of  a  fund  for  theological 
education]  by  removing  prejudices  and  showing  the  value 
of  education  to  a  pious  ministry.  There  are  in  this  State 
more  than  20,000  members.  Is  there  one  of  these  who 
would  be  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  giving  fifty  cents  for 
so  desirable  an  object?"  The  ignorance  and  prejudice 
encountered  by  Mercer,  Sherwood,  Sanders,  Kirkpatrick, 
and  other  noble  apostles  of  enlightenment  might  well  have 
discouraged  men  of  less  faith  and  fortitude. 

Dr.  A.  Sherwood,  a  native  of  New  York,  a  graduate  of 
Union  College,  and  an  undergraduate  of  Andover  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  performed  services  of  the  utmost  value 


Chap.  II.]  EDUCATION  IN  GEORGIA.  41  I 

in  awakening  interest  in  education.  As  pastor  of  the 
Eatonton  church  and  principal  of  the  Eatonton  Academy 
he  trained  a  number  of  students  for  the  ministry,  gi\'ing 
them  private  instruction  in  theology.  Among  his  pupils 
were  Jesse  H.  Campbell,  the  noted  historian  of  the  Georgia 
Baptists,  and  J.  R.  Hand,  a  useful  minister.  The  "  Chris- 
tian Index,"  in  the  hands  of  Jesse  Mercer,  was  an  impor- 
tant enlightening  agency.  It  set  forth  in  no  measured 
terms  the  unreasonableness  and  irreligion  of  opposition  to 
missions  and  education,  and  multiplied  the  friends  of  prog- 
ress. The  opponents  of  education  laid  stress  on  the  argu- 
ment from  inspiration.  If  God  inspired  his  servants  in  the 
olden  tiiire,  why  not  now?  They  claimed  that  men  called 
of  God  were  qualified  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  apart  from  any 
human  agency,  and  that  they  received  directly  from  God 
the  message  he  would  ha\e  them  deliver.  Mercer,  in  the 
"Christian  Index"  (1834),  thus  answers  this  argument: 
"  The  argument  drawn  from  the  gifts  and  promises  of  God 
to  inspired  men  in  favor  of  the  advantages  of  ministers  now 
is,  in  our  judgment,  a  very  deceptive  one,  because  the  anal- 
ogy is  not  true.  Will  any  man  pretend  that  ministers  are 
now  inspired,  so  that  their  sermons  may,  with  equal  pro- 
priety, be  styled  inspired  sermons  ?  If  so,  then  the  Script- 
ures are  not  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  but  these 
sermons  have  equal  claim." 

At  the  Convention  of  1829  it  was  announced  that  Josiah 
Penfield  had  left  a  legacy  of  $2500  as  a  fund  for  education, 
on  the  condition  that  a  like  sum  be  raised.  The  amount 
was  subscribed  on  the  spot.  The  names  of  the  donors  and 
the  amounts  subscribed  have  been  preserved.  Mercer  led 
off  with  $250,  Cullen  Battle  followed  with  $200,  and  many 
whose  names  are  still  fragrant  among  Georgia  Baptists  con- 
tributed each  according  to  his  means.  In  1832,  additional 
funds  having  been  raised  for  the  purpose,  a  tract  of  land 


412  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

was  purchased  in  Green  County  and  a  manual-labor  school 
was  opened,  with  B.  M.  Sanders,  a  college  graduate,  a  min- 
ister, and  a  practical  farmer,  as  its  head.  The  school  was 
styled  Mercer  Institute,  in  honor  of  the  great  advocate 
and  promoter  of  education  ;  and  the  village  which  grew 
up  on  the  lands  purchased  was  named  Penfield,  in  honor 
of  him  whose  legacy  made  the  institution  a  possibility. 
But  such  a  school  could  not  long  satisfy  the  educational 
aspirations  of  the  denomination.  Stimulated  by  the  suc- 
cessful efforts  of  the  Presbyterians  to  found  a  college, 
Mercer  suggested  that  efforts  be  made  to  secure  funds  for 
the  founding  of  a  university  at  W'ashington,  Ga.,  his  home. 
The  suggestion  "  took  like  wild-fire,"  to  use  his  own  lan- 
guage. Agents  were  put  in  the  field  in  1837.  and  were 
soon  able  to  report  $100,000  subscribed  for  "  The  South- 
ern Baptist  College,"  as  the  institution  was  somewhat 
ambitiously  named  in  the  charter  that  had  been  secured. 
A  financial  crisis  soon  afterward  greatly  impaired  the  sub- 
scription list  and  led  to  a  surrender  of  the  charter.  But 
the  interest  aroused  had  been  too  great  to  allow  of  much 
delay.  In  the  same  year  a  new  charter  was  secured  for 
Mercer  University,  and  a  transfer  of  many  of  the  subscrip- 
tions to  the  more  ambitious  enterprise  was  made  for  the 
development  of  the  institute  at  Penfield  into  a  college.  A 
faculty,  with  Sanders  as  president  and  Sherwood  as  theo- 
logical professor,  was  appointed  in  1838  and  classes  were 
organized  early  in  1839.  Among  the  tutors  appointed  at 
this  time  was  S.  P.  Sanford,  who,  after  teaching  for  more 
than  fifty  years  and  winning  the  hearts  of  multitudes  of 
students,  is  spending  an  honored  old  age  as  emeritus  pro- 
fessor. The  board  was  able  to  report  $50,000  of  interest- 
bearing  funds  and  a  somewhat  larger  amount  in  good  sub- 
scriptions. Mercer  gave  largely  toward  this  amount  and 
bequeathed  to  the  institution  enough  to  bring  his  gifts  to 


Chap.  II.]         ILLINOIS  AND   NORTH   CAROLINA.  413 

about  $40,000.  Thus  the  institution  started  upon  its 
noble  career  well  endowed,  according  to  the  standards  of 
the  time. 

The  Georgia  Convention  was  by  no  means  indifferent  to 
the  religious  instruction  of  the  colored  people.  In  1835  it 
was  resolved  "  that  we  recommend  to  all  our  brethren  a 
due  consideration  of  the  best  method  of  affording  religious 
instruction  to  the  black  population  among  us ;  and  that 
such  facilities  be  afforded  for  this  instruction  as  in  their 
best  judgment  may  be  deemed  most  expedient."  Further 
steps  were  taken  in  the  same  direction  in  1839. 

In  1832  the  seminary  that  had  been  founded  at  Rock 
Spring,  111.,  by  John  M.  Peck  was  removed  to  Upper 
Alton,  then  looked  upon  as  a  town  of  great  promise. 
Seven  friends  of  education  became  responsible  for  $1675 
as  a  founding  fund  for  "  a  college  to  be  under  the  super- 
vision of  Baptists."  These  seven,  together  with  James 
Lemen  and  J.  M.  Peck,  constituted  the  first  board  of  trus- 
tees. Land  was  purchased,  and  with  the  aid  of  further 
donations  from  the  citizens  buildings  were  erected.  A 
college  charter  was  secured  in  1835.  The  school  opened 
with  an  attendance  of  twenty- five,  under  the  direction  of 
Hubbell  Loomis  and  Lewis  Colby.  In  consideration  of  a 
gift  of  $10,000  from  Benjamin  Shurtleff  the  college  adopted 
his  name.  Adiel  Sherwood,  who  had  contributed  so  much 
toward  the  success  of  the  educational  movement  in  Georgia, 
was  president  from  1841  to  1846.  A  theological  depart- 
ment was  added  at  a  later  date,  and  both  departments  have 
been  vigorously  maintained. 

Soon  after  its  organization  the  North  Carolina  State 
Convention  inaugurated  practical  measures  for  supplying 
the  denomination  with  educational  facilities.  In  1832  the 
Convention  purchased  a  large  farm  in  Wake  County  and 
in  1834  opened  a  manual-labor  school  styled  the  Wake 


414  THE  BAPriSTS.  |,l'hK.  iii. 

Forest  Institute.  Samuel  Wait  was  the  first  principal  and 
John  Armstrong;  was  his  chief  colleague.  Before  the  close 
of  the  first  year  seventy  students  had  been  enrolled,  and 
the  next  year  powerful  levivals  blessed  the  school  and  en- 
deared it  to  the  denomination.  In  1839  a  college  charter 
was  procured,  not  without  considerable  difficulty.  By 
1 86 1  the  college  had  an  invested  endowment  of  $85,000 
and  bonds  worth  $30,000.  Most  of  this  was  swept  away 
by  the  Civil  War. 

The  Baptists  of  Virginia  were  slow  to  attempt  educa- 
tional work.  The  matter  was  often  discussed  during  the 
later  years  of  the  last  century  and  tlie  early  years  of  the 
present,  and  committees  were  sometimes  appointed  to  plan 
and  report;  but  denominational  apathy  was  too  great  for 
anything  more  practical.  Virginia  shared  largely  in  the 
educational  enthusiasm  aroused  by  Luther  Rice  and  others, 
and  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  founding  and  sustaining  of 
Columbian  College.  The  fact  that  this  institution  was  so 
near  at  hand  and  w^as  thought  by  many  of  the  leaders  of 
the  denomination  to  furnish  ample  facilities  for  the  Baptists 
of  Virginia  was  the  chief  reason  for  the  long  delay  in 
founding  a  college  in  the  State. 

By  1830  many  had  come  to  feel  that  something  more 
was  needed  for  supplying  the  churches  with  an  educated 
ministry.  Only  a  small  proportion  of  those  who  felt  them- 
selves called  to  the  ministry  could  or  would  gain  the  prep- 
aration necessary  to  enable  them  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
literary  advantages  offered  by  Columbian  College,  and  its 
theological  work  had  been  abandoned.  A  home  institution 
in  which  young  men  and  men  of  maturer  years  could  be 
encouraged  to  begin  and  carry  forward  their  preparation 
for  the  ministry  was  urgently  needed.  In  1830  the  Vir- 
ginia Baptist  Education  Society  was  organized  by  a  num- 
ber of  brethren  \\\\o  had  been  called  tosjether  "  for  devising 


Chap,  n.]  EDUCATIOX  IN   VIRGINIA.  415 

and  proposing  some  plan  for  the  improvement  of  young 
men  who,  in  tlie  judgment  of  their  churches,  are  called  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry."  John  Kerr  was  appointed 
chairman  and  James  B.  Taylor  secretary.  The  committee 
appointed  "  to  draw  up  a  plan  and  report  "  consisted  of 
W.  F.  Broaddus,  J.  B.  Jeter,  H.  Keeling,  and  J.  B.  Taylor. 
These  were  all  highly  honored  brethren,  and  several  of 
them  attained  to  national  eminence.  The  report  recom- 
mends the  formation  of  a  society  for  assisting  young  men, 
but  not  the  immediate  establishment  of  a  seminary  of  learn- 
ing. The  interest  of  the  denomination  in  Columbian  Col- 
lege and  the  obligation  to  aid  in  sustaining  it  are  recog- 
nized. The  plan  proposed  is  the  more  primitive  one  of 
placing  beneficiaries  "  in  the  families  of  experienced  min- 
istering brethren,  whose  education,  libraries,  and  oppor- 
tunities to  give  useful  instruction  may  enable  them  to 
render  essential  service  to  their  younger  brethren."  It 
was  thought  that  the  arrangement  could  be  made  largely 
self-supporting  by  having  the  students  labor  in  the  adjacent 
country.  But  so  primitive  an  arrangement  as  this  would 
not  long  satisfy  Virginia  Baptists,  now  becoming  conscious 
of  their  strength  and  aware  of  the  value  of  an  educated 
ministry,  especially  as  their  brethren  in  neighboring  States 
were  enjoying  the  advantages  of  institutions  of  their  own. 
Two  years  later  Virginia  Baptists  must  needs  make  the 
oft-repeated  and  never  permanently  successful  experiment 
of  a  manual-labor  school.  A  farm  was  purchased  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Richmond,  and  Robert  Ryland,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Columbian,  was  appointed  principal.  Ryland  was 
opposed  to  the  founding  of  any  school  at  the  time  and  still 
more  to  the  manual-labor  experiment;  but  the  wishes  of 
his  brethren  overcame  his  reluctance  and  he  entered  with 
energy  upon  the  undertaking.  Ryland  knew  far  more 
about  Latin,  Greek,  mathematics,  and  theology  than  about 


41 6  THE  BAPTISTS.  [I'kk.  hi. 

agriculture.  He  killed  a  field  of  corn  by  depositing  a 
handful  of  salt  at  the  roots  of  each  stalk ;  yet  he  made 
$300  for  the  institution  by  selling  ice.  He  found  a  strong 
tendency  among  the  students  toward  phonetic  spelling, 
and  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  he  could  bring 
them  to  adopt  the  current  orthography.  The  salaries  of 
the  teachers  depended  on  the  amount  collected  from  a  few 
"pay  students,"  as  the  denomination  responded  meagerly 
to  appeals  for  help.  "  What  we  lacked  in  pay  we  made 
up  in  work,"  wrote  the  venerable  Ryland  long  afterward. 
"  Without  any  concert  or  design,  we  fell  into  the  long- 
established  custom  of  the  world — that,  as  the  duties  of  an 
office  become  heavy,  its  emoluments  are  light,  and  vice 
versa.''  In  1834  the  farm  was  sold  and  a  beautiful  prop- 
erty in  the  suburbs  of  Richmond  purchased  for  $12,000. 
The  manual-labor  feature  was  still  retained,  but  the  accom- 
modations and  equipment  were  greatly  improved  and  the 
school  grew  in  popular  favor.  A  college  charter  was  se- 
cured in  1840,  but  full  college  work  was  not  attempted  till 
about  five  years  later.  The  first  class  was  graduated  in 
1849.  By  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  the  college  was 
well  equipped  with  buildings  and  other  appliances,  and  had 
a  faculty  of  six  professors  and  one  tutor  and  an  endowment 
of  $100,000.  The  college  was  almost  wrecked  by  the  war, 
but  soon  recovered  itself  and  is  ncnv  one  of  the  best  insti- 
tutions of  the  kind  in  the  South. 

The  Baptists  of  Ohio  entered  early  upon  educational 
work.  A  manual-labor  school  was  established  in  1832 
near  Granville,  under  the  name  "  Granville  Literary  and 
Theological  Institution."  John  Pratt  was  the  first  prin- 
cipal. He  was  succeeded  in  1837  by  Jonathan  Going, 
famous  as  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Home  Mi-ssion  So- 
ciety. In  1845  the  institution  assumed  the  dignity  of  a 
college.      Granville  College  became  Denison  University  in 


Chap.  II.]      IXDLIXA    AXD  KEXTCCKY  COLLEGES.  417 

1856  in  honor  of  a  benefactor.  The  career  of  the  univer- 
sity has  been  in  every  way  a  highly  useful  and  honorable 
one. 

An  education  society  was  organized  by  Indiana  Bap- 
tists in  1835,  ^'"i^  ii''  1836  a  manual-labor  school  was 
opened  in  the  neighborhood  of  Franklin  under  A.  T.  Til- 
ton,  who  was  succeeded  by  W.  J.  Robinson.  In  1844  the 
institution  became  Franklin  College,  and  G.  C.  Chandler, 
a  man  of  remarkable  energy  and  perseverance,  was  its 
first  president.  With  inadequate  equipment  and  endow- 
ment the  institution  has  gone  steadily  forward  and  has 
done  admirable  work  in  Christian  education. 

Baptists  in  Kentucky  early  realized  the  importance  of 
denominational  education.  A  charter  was  secured  for 
Georgetown  College  in  1829,  and  Dr.  W.  Staughton,  who 
had  some  time  before  resigned  the  presidency  of  Colum- 
bian College,  was  elected  to  the  head  of  the  new  institution. 
His  death  occurred  before  he  could  enter  upon  his  work. 
The  college  became  a  bone  of  contention  between  the 
Baptists  and  the  Disciples,  who  about  this  time  seceded 
in  large  numbers  from  the  Baptist  churches  of  Kentucky. 
Under  the  presidency  of  Rockwood  Giddings  (1838-40) 
peaceable  possession  of  the  institution  and  a  subscribed 
endowment  of  about  $80,000  were  secured.  Under  How- 
ard Malcom  (1840-50)  the  college  took  rank  among  the 
leading  institutions  of  its  kind.  The  Western  Baptist 
Theological  Institute,  located  at  Covington,  Ky.,  was  char- 
tered in  1840.  A  considerable  endowment  was  raised, 
buildings  were  erected,  an  able  faculty,  including  E.  G. 
Robinson,  was  secured,  and  valuable  work  was  accom- 
plished. The  board  was  composed  partly  of  Northern 
and  partly  of  Southern  Baptists.  The  institute  was 
wrecked  by  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question.  In 
1853  the  property  was  divided  between  the  Northern  and 


4i8  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  m. 

Southern  factions.  The  former  attempted  to  estabHsh  the 
Fairmount  Theological  Seminary  in  the  suburbs  of  Cincin- 
nati, the  latter  applied  its  proportion  of  the  funds  (about 
$48,000)  to  the  support  of  a  theological  department  in 
Georgetown  College. 

It  is  not  intended  in  the  present  chapter  to  make  men- 
tion of  institutions  that  were  founded  later  than  1 845.  The 
educational  idea,  once  thoroughly  energetic,  was  sure  to 
embody  itself  wherever  a  favorable  opportunity  should 
occur;  and  as  the  State  unit  in  denominational  affairs  has 
had  a  controlling  influence,  each  State  was  likely  sooner 
or  later  to  have  one  or  more  seminaries  of  learning.  There 
are  exceptions  which  can  easily  be  explained,  but  the  rule 
has  been,  "  every  State  its  own  Baptist  college.'' 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  TRIENNIAL  CONVENTION,  Continued. 

The  home  mission  idea  that  had  pressed  itself  with 
such  emphasis  on  the  General  Convention  as  to  lead  to  a 
change  in  its  constitution  and  in  the  designation  of  its 
board  in  1817,  but  the  realization  of  which  subsequent 
events  led  the  Convention  to  leave  to  other  agencies,  was 
sure  to  reassert  itself  at  an  early  date.  The  spiritual  des- 
titution of  the  great  West,  with  its  rapidly  increasing 
population  and  its  magnificent  prospects,  could  not  long 
fail  to  compel  united  action  on  the  part  of  a  great  and  grow- 
ing denomination.  Judson  himself,  the  pioneer  American 
foreign  missionary,  urged  upon  American  Baptists  the 
importance  of  evangelizing  the  aborigines,  and  the  spirit 
of  foreign  missions  could  hardly  fail  to  emphasize  the 
necessity  of  well-directed  and  persistent  effort  on  behalf 
of  this  long- neglected  class. 

In  183 1  Dr.  Jonathan  Going,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  re- 
turned from  an  extended  prospecting  tour  full  of  enthu- 
siasm for  Western  missions.  Under  his  influence  the 
Massachusetts  Missionary  Society  adopted  a  resolution 
(November,  183 1)  declaring  that  the  Baptists  of  the 
United  States  ought  to  form  a  general  society  for  mission 
work  in  America,  especially  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The 
conviction  was  also  expressed  that  Dr.  Going  ought  to  re- 
linquish his  pastoral  charge  and  devote  himself  to  arousing 
interest  in  this  work.     A  committee  composed  of  Drs.  D. 

419 


420  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

Sharp  and  L.  Bolles,  both  leading  advocates  of  the  foreign 
mission  cause,  was  appointed  to  \-isit  New  York  and  confer 
with  members  of  the  New  York  Baptist  Missionary  Con- 
vention and  others  with  reference  to  the  formation  of  a 
general  home  mission  society.  Philadelphia  was  also  vis- 
ited in  this  interest.  The  proposal  met  with  fa\"or.  These 
conferences  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  Provisional 
Committee,  with  Dr.  A.  Maclay,  of  New  York,  as  chair- 
man. Dr.  Going  as  corresponding  secretary,  William  Col- 
gate as  treasurer,  and  Dr.  William  R.  W^illiams  as  recording 
secretary.  A  meeting  was  called  for  the  formal  organiza- 
tion of  the  society,  to  be  held  in  New  York  on  April  2"] , 
1832.  The  time  and  place  were  those  that  had  been  fixed 
upon  for  the  Triennial  Convention  and  insured  a  large 
attendance.  The  constitution  that  had  been  prepared 
was  adopted  with  slight  changes,  the  Hon.  Heman  Lin- 
coln, of  Massachusetts,  was  appointed  president,  a  large 
number  of  the  most  influential  ministers  and  la3'men,  rep- 
resenting all  parts  of  the  countr}',  were  made  vice-presi- 
dents and  directors,  and  the  officers  of  the  Provisional 
Committee  were  reappointed. 

The  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  thus  en- 
tered upon  its  career  with  the  fullest  and  heartiest  support 
of  the  denomination  at  large  and  with  every  promise  of  the 
highest  usefulness.  The  society  was  peculiarly  fortunate 
in  having  for  its  first  secretary  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  of  his  time.  Jonathan  Going  is  characterized  by  one 
of  his  contemporaries  as  "  a  \ast,  walking,  magnetic  ma- 
chine, at  every  step  giving  ofi"  sparks  through  every  pore 
of  his  skin,  through  every  hair  of  his  head,  through  e\"ery 
muscle  of  his  face."  "  As  for  his  eyes  and  tongue,"  he 
continues,  "  I  can  never  describe  them.  .  .  .  To  come  oc- 
casionally under  the  shadow  of  a  man  like  Jonathan  Going 
is  worth  more  than  to  sit  whole  ages  under  the  formal  in- 


Chap,  hi.]  HOME  MISSIOXS.  42 1 

struction  of  other  men.  Such  contact  would  draw  more 
electricity,  impart  a  higher  inspiration,  give  a  more  mighty 
and  enduring  impulse."  His  executive  ability  was  spoken 
of  in  the  highest  terms,  and  he  had  long  been  noted  for  his 
skill  in  settling  church  difficulties.  A  graduate  of  Brown 
(1809),  his  scholarship  was  far  in  advance  of  that  of  most 
of  the  denominational  leaders  of  the  time.  He  had  been 
among  the  foremost  promoters  of  theological  education 
and  had  had  much  to  do  with  the  establishment  of  New- 
ton Theological  Institution.  "  More  education  in  the  min- 
istry was  eternally  his  theme."  He  had  been  among  the 
earliest  and  most  zealous  advocates  of  Sunday-schools. 
Foreign  missions  also  had  thoroughly  enlisted  his  sym- 
pathies and  his  endeavors.  In  a  word,  he  was  the  very 
incarnation  of  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  denomination. 
The  importance  to  the  denomination  of  having  such  a 
leader  at  such  a  time  was  inestimable.  He  had  found  the 
Baptists  in  the  West  seriously  divided  in  doctrine.  "  Gill- 
ites,  Fulleritcs,  Parkerites,  Campbellites,  and  Stonites " 
were  at  variance  with  one  another  and  greatly  hindering 
the  advance  of  the  denomination  and  the  evangelization 
of  destitute  regions.  He  was  convinced  that  "  a  mighty 
effort  must  be  made,  .  .  .  and  made  soon,  or  ignorance 
and  heresy  and  infidelity  will  intrench  themselves  too 
strongly  to  be  repulsed.  And  in  that  case  it  is  morally 
certain  that  our  republic  will  be  overturned  and  our  insti- 
tutions, civil  and  religious,  will  be  demolished."  "  As 
Baptists,"  he  insisted,  "we  have  a  deep  interest  in  the 
work  of  Western  reform ;  as  friends  of  our  common  Chris- 
tianity we  are  bound  to  propagate  it  among  the  destitute ; 
while  as  Baptists  we  should  be  solicitous  that  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  gospel,  in  their  primitive  form  and  beauty, 
should  be  established  at  an  early  period  in  the  important 
valley  of  the  West ;  and   it  is  known  that  the  larger  pro- 


42  2  THE  BAPTIsrs.  [Per.  hi. 

portion  of  the  people  are  destitute  of  the  means  of  sal- 
vation, while  probably  a  thousand  Baptist  churches  are 
without  preaching  every  Sabbath."  For  five  years  he 
labored  with  remarkable  zeal  and  success  in  enlisting  the 
cooperation  of  State  missionary  societies,  Conventions,  As- 
sociations, churches,  and  benevolent  individuals,  and  in 
securing  educated,  consecrated,  and  efficient  ministers  for 
the  West. 

During  the  first  year  50  missionaries  were  employed  for 
longer  or  shorter  periods — 6  in  New  York,  12  in  Ohio,  5 
in  Indiana,  3  in  Michigan,  9  in  Illinois,  7  in  Missouri,  2  in 
New  Jersey,  and  i  each  in  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, Arkansas,  Mississippi,  and  Lower  Canada.  In  the 
second  year  80  missionaries  were  engaged  and  Upper 
Canada  and  Louisiana  were  added  to  the  fields.  The 
third  year  shows  an  increase  of  missionaries  to  96.  By 
1836  the  annual  receipts  of  the  society  had  risen  to 
$16,910.85. 

The  officers  of  the  society  were  from  the  beginning  fully 
alive  to  the  importance  of  establishing  vigorous  churches 
in  growing  towns.  Many  of  the  city  churches  that  have 
become  centers  of  beneficent  influence  owe  their  origin  or 
their  rapid  growth  to  the  activity  of  the  society.  Among 
the  mission  fields  of  the  first  five  years  were  St.  Louis, 
Chicago,  New  Orleans,  Cleveland,  Indianapolis,  Louisville, 
Columbus,  O.,  Nashville,  and  Milwaukee.  In  Upper  Can- 
ada, Brantford  and  Toronto,  now  important  Baptist  centers, 
recei\"ed  the  attention  of.  the  society. 

Interesting  accounts  of  the  self-sacrificing  and  abundant 
labors  of  tfie  missionaries  might  be  given.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  any  agency  employed  by  the  Baptists  of  the 
United  States  has  been  so  extensively  beneficent  as  the 
American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society.  Its  motto, 
"  North  America  for   Christ,"  it  has  constantly  and  sue- 


Chap.  in. J  RELIGIOUS  XEWSPAPERS.  423 

cessfully  aimed  to  realize.  In  1837  John  M.  Peck,  the 
pioneer  home  missionary  in  IlHnois  and  Missouri,  could 
write  :  "  The  time  was  when  not  another  man  besides  my- 
self and  colleague,  Brother  J.  E.  Welch,  in  the  two  States, 
of  any  denomination,  could  be  found  to  take  a  bold  and 
active  stand  in  any  of  the  benevolent  moA'ements  of  the 
age.  Now  I  can  count  up  zealous,  active  laborers  and 
successful  men  by  scores." 

The  operations  of  the  society  did  not  increase  largely 
between  1836  and  1845.  Only  once  between  these  dates 
did  the  receipts  exceed  those  of  the  earlier  date,  and  the 
receipts  of  the  latter  year  were  only  $18,675.68;  yet  by 
reason  of  the  development  of  the  aggressive  missionary 
spirit  on  the  fields  cultivated,  the  work  accomplished  far 
more  than  kept  pace  with  the  receipts. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  dearth  of  de- 
nominational literature  at  the  beginning  of  this  period  and 
of  the  efforts  of  Luther  Rice  and  others  to  help  forward 
the  missionary  and  educational  v/ork  of  the  General  Con- 
vention by  the  publication  of  the  "  Latter  Day  Luminary  " 
and  the  "  Columbian  Star."  The  supply  of  periodical 
literature  was  soon  to  become  superabundant  through 
private  enterprise.  There  are  so  many  people  that  think 
themselves  capable  of  editing  a  paper,  and  it  is  so  easy  to 
figure  out  on  paper  a  paying  subscription  list  and  a  net 
profit  from  advertisements,  that  experiments  without  num- 
ber were  sure  to  be  made.  A  few  of  those  established 
before  1845,  in  some  cases  with  change  of  name,  have 
survived  and  have  constantly  increased  in  influence. 
"The  Watchman,"  begun  in  1819  as  "The  Christian 
Watchman,"  came  into  increased  prominence  (1838-48) 
under  William  Crowell,  was  successfully  conducted  for 
many  years  by  J.  W.  Olmstead,  assisted  by  L.  E.  Smith 
and  others,   absorbed   "The  Christian   Reflector"   (1848) 


424  ^'^^'   BAPTISTS.  [Tkr.  hi. 

and  "The  Christian  Era"  (1875),  and,  under  G.  E.  Horr, 
still  flourishes.  "  The  Examiner  "  furnishes  a  remarkable 
case  of  newspaper  evolution.  It  represents  all  that  is  left 
of  some  seven  papers.  "  The  New  York  Baptist  Register," 
founded  at  Utica  about  1824,  having  absorbed  in  1825  a 
missionary  quarterly  begun  in  1814  or  earlier,  was  in  1855 
amalgamated  with  "  The  New  York  Recorder,"  an  out- 
growth (1845)  of  "The  Baptist  Advocate"  (1839),  which 
had  absorbed  "The  Gospel  Witness"  (begun  in  1835). 
S.  S.  Cutting  and  M.  B.  Anderson,  as  editors  of  "  The 
Recorder,"  had  given  to  that  paper  a  leading  place  among 
religious  journals.  "The  Recorder  and  Register"  was 
purchased  by  Edward  Bright  and  S.  S.  Cutting  in  1855, 
when  its  name  was  changed  to  "The  Examiner."  In 
1849  "The  New  York  Chronicle"  had  been  started  by 
O.  B.  Judd,  and  in  1855  it  was  edited  and  controlled  by 
J.  S.  Backus  and  Pharcellus  Church.  In  1863  Dr.  Church 
became  sole  proprietor  and  purchased,  besides,  "  The 
Christian  Chronicle,"  of  Philadelphia,  edited  by  J.  S. 
Dickerson.  In  1865  "The  Chronicle"  was  united  with 
"  The  Examiner."  Under  Edward  Bright  "  The  Examiner 
and  Chronicle  "  (afterward  shortened  to  "  The  Examiner  ") 
attained  to  the  leading  position  in  Baptist  journalism. 
Lately  (1894)  "The  National  Baptist,"  of  Philadelphia, 
was  purchased  by  "  The  Examiner,"  and  its  able  editor, 
H.  L.  Wayland,  made  a  member  of  the  staft'.  On  the 
death  of  Dr.  Bright  (June,  1894),  Henry  C.  Vedder,  one 
of  the  most  accomplished  religious  journalists  of  the  time, 
succeeded  to  the  editorial  control  of  the  paper,  having 
been  since  1876  one  of  its  chief  editorial  writers.  "The 
Religious  Herald,"  begun  in  1828  by  William  Sands,  a 
practical  printer,  has  had  a  continuous  and  highly  honor- 
able existence  to  the  present  time.  Under  the  editorial 
direction  of  D.  Shaver  (1857    onward)  it  became  one  of 


CuAi'.  111.]  XElVSrAFEKS   AXD   REVIEWS.  425 

the   most   influential   papers  in  the   South.      Under  J.   B. 
Jeter  and  A.  E.  Dickinson  (1865  cnward)  its  position  was 
still  further  strengthened.      Dr.  Jeter  was  one  of  the  ablest 
Baptists  the  South  has  possessed,  and   Dr.    Dickinson  is 
still  one  of  the  most  versatile  and    influential  of  editors. 
With   him   is  worthily   associated   at   present   Dr.    \V.    E. 
Hatcher.      Other  papers  whose  publication  was  begun  be- 
fore 1845  and  which  have  survived  are  :  "  The  Western  Re- 
corder "  (1835),  ably  edited  at  present  by  T.  T.  Eaton,  and 
representing  the  Baptist  conservatism  of  the  South  ;  "  The 
Journal  and  Messenger,"  of  Cincinnati,  begun  in  1831  as 
"The   Baptist  Weekly  Journal,"    and   united  with   "The 
Christian  Messenger"  in  185  i,  has  been  successfully  con- 
ducted by  G.  W.    Lasher  since    1876;  "The   Baptist,"  of 
Tennessee   (1835),  edited  for  many  years  (1846  onward) 
by  J.  R.  Graves,  and  the  leading  exponent  of  "  Old-Land- 
markism  "  ;  "  Zion's  Advocate"  (1828),  the  organ  of  the 
Bapti.sts  of  Maine,  ably  conducted  since  1873  by  Henry  S. 
Burrage,   noted    as    historical    scholar  and    author;    "The 
Christian  Secretary,"   of  Connecticut  (1822),  ably   edited 
for  many  years  by  S.  D.  Phelps.      "  The  Columbian  Star" 
(1822),  founded  by  Luther  Rice  as  the  organ  of  the  schemes 
of  the  Convention,   edited   in   Philadelphia  (1826-28)  by 
W.  T.  Brantly  as  "  The  Columbian  Star  "  and  "  The  Chris- 
tian Index,"  purchased  by  Jesse  Mercer  and  transferred  to 
Georgia  in  1833,  presented  by  him  to  the  Georgia  Baptist 
Convention  in  1840,  has  from  the  beginning  had  a  highly 
useful  career.      Its  most  brilliant  editor  was  the  late  Henry 
Holcombe  Tucker,  one  of  the  ablest  educators  and  most 
eloquent  preachers  that  the  South  has  produced. 

The  need  of  a  denominational  review  early  came  to  be 
felt,  and  in  1836  "The  Christian  Review"  was  started  as 
a  quarterly,  with  J.  D.  Knowles  as  editor.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Barnas  Sears.      Among  the  later  noted  editors 


426  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'kk.  hi. 

were  S.  S.  Cutting,  G.  B.  Taylor,  and  E.  G.  Robinson. 
"  The  Review  "  was  discontinued  in  1863.  The  American 
Baptist  Publication  Society  issued  an  able  quarterly  (1867- 
T']),  edited  at  first  by  L.  E.  Smith  and  afterward  by 
President  H.  G.  Weston.  Under  the  name  "  The  Bap- 
tist Quarterly  Review"  J.  R.  Baumes  attempted  to  supply 
the  denominational  need  from  1878  to  1885,  when  he  sold 
it  to  a  company  in  New  York,  who  changed  its  name  to 
"  The  Baptist  Quarterly  "  and  published  it  until  1892,  with 
R.  S.  MacArthur  and  H.  C.  Vedder  as  editors.  "  The  Bap- 
tist Memorial  and  Monthly  Chronicle,"  edited  at  first  by 
R.  Babcock  and  J.  O.  Choules,  and  afterward  by  Enoch 
Hutchinson,  was  published  in  New  York  from  1842  to 
1850.  It  was  a  publication  of  much  merit  and  contains  a 
vast  amount  of  valuable  historical  matter. 

While  religious  journalism  might  saf  1}-  be  left  to  indi- 
vidual enterprise,  there  were  other  kinds  of  publication  that 
called  loudly  for  united  denominational  effort.  The  need 
of  religious  tracts  free  from  bias  against  Baptist  teaching 
and  inculcating  Baptist  principles  came  to  be  keenly  felt 
early  in  the  present  period.  A  number  of  tract  societies 
had  been  formed  by  Congregationalists,  Episcopalians,  and 
others,  and  the  Methodists  were  reaping  rich  ad\'antages 
from  their  well-established  and  energetically  conducted 
Book  Concern.  The  suggestion  that  led  to  the  formation 
of  a  Baptist  tract  society  seems  to  have  come  from  Noah 
Davis,  a  zealous  young  minister  who  had  studied  under 
Staughton  and  Chase  in  Philadelphia  and  afterward  in 
Cokunbian  College.  In  February,  1824,  he  addressed  a 
communication  to  J.  D.  Knowles,  then  editor  of  "  The 
Columbian  Star,"  which  led  to  the  calling  of  a  meeting 
and  the  organization  of  the  Baptist  General  Tract  So- 
ciety, with  its  headquarters  at  Washington.  "  I  have 
been  thinking  for  some  time,"  he  wrote,  "  how  a  tract  so- 


Chap,  hi.]  BAPTIST   TRACT  SOCIETY.  427 

ciety  can  be  got  up  in  Washington  which  shall  hold  the 
same  place  among  the  Baptists  that  the  American  Tract 
Society  does  among  the  Congregationalists.  I  feel  \ery 
much  the  necessity  of  having  tracts  to  scatter  in  the  waste 
places.  It  is  a  plan  of  doing  good  but  little  known  among 
Baptists."  That  it  should  be  located  in  Washington  rather 
than  in  a  great  publishing  center  like  Philadelphia  was 
in  accord  with  the  design  of  Rice  and  others  to  make 
the  national  capital  the  center  of  denominational  activity. 
After  due  announcement  in  "The  Columbian  Star,"  a 
meeting  was  held  on  February  20th  for  the  formation  of 
the  society.  Dr.  Staughton  presided,  and  a  constitution 
drafted  by  Knowles  was  amended  and  adopted.  The  or- 
ganization was  styled  the  Baptist  General  Tract  Society, 
and  provision  was  made  for  the  publication  and  distribu- 
tion of  tracts,  the  appointment  of  subordinate  agents,  the 
establishment  of  depositories,  and  the  formation  of  auxil- 
iary societies.  O.  B.  Brown  v/as  appointed  president, 
George  Wood  agent,  and  Luther  Rice,  already  over- 
whelmed with  responsibilities,  treasurer.  The  society  at 
once  received  the  cordial  support  of  the  leaders  of  the  de- 
nomination North  and  South,  and  beginning  in  a  very 
small  way  soon  extended  its  operations  so  as  to  become 
one  of  the  most  important  and  successful  of  our  denomina- 
tional enterprises.  The  receipts,  which  were  for  the  first 
year  $373.80,  amounted  to  $20,803.78  for  the  year  end- 
ing in  April,  1845.  As  early  as  1826,  owing  to  great  in- 
convenience and  loss  from  being  at  a  distance  from  a  pub- 
lishing and  distributing  center,  the  society  removed  its 
headquarters  to  Philadelphia.  The  complications  that  had 
arisen  in  connection  with  Columbian  College  doubtless 
facilitated  the  transfer.  In  1840  a  revised  constitution 
was  adopted  and  the  name  of  the  society  changed  to  the 
American   Baptist  Publication  Society.      Besides  publish- 


428  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

ing  a  large  number  of  valuable  tracts,  the  society  issued 
popular  periodicals  anci  publishetl  a  number  of  denomina- 
tional books.  Its  missionary  work,  accomplished  through 
colporteurs,  who  have  traversed  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land  distributing  literature,  preaching  in  destitute 
places,  establishing  Sunday-schools,  etc.,  has  been  abun- 
dant and  effective.  Sunday-school  work  is  distinctly  rec- 
ognized in  the  new  constitution  and  has  since  1840  been 
pushed  with  great  vigor.  The  society  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  in  America  to  engage  in  colportage. 

The  American  Bible  Society,  formed  in  1816,  was  an 
undenominational  institution,  in  which  Baptists  freely 
joined.  Before  1836  they  had  contributed  more  than 
$170,000  to  its  funds,  and  when  Judson's  Burmese  New 
Testament  was  completed  in  1832  and  his  complete  Bur- 
mese Bible  in  1834,  the  board  of  the  Triennial  Convention 
asked  for  and  received  appropriations  toward  printing  and 
circulating  these  versions.  The  total  amount  received  was 
$19,700.  In  1833  the  board  of  the  Triennial  Convention 
had  passed  the  following  resolution  :  "  That  all  missionaries 
of  the  board  who  are,  or  shall  be,  engaged  in  translating 
the  Scriptures,  be  instructed  to  endeavor,  by  earnest  prayer 
and  diligent  study,  to  ascertain  the  precise  meaning  of  the 
original  text,  to  express  that  meaning  as  exactly  as  the 
nature  of  the  languages  into  which  they  translate  the  Bible 
will  permit,  and  to  transfer  no  \vords  which  are  capable  of 
being  literally  translated."  Wltii  this  position  Judson  was 
in  complete  accord.  In  1835  application  was  made  to  the 
American  Bible  Society  for  funds  to  aid  in  printing  the 
Bengali  Scriptures  prepared  by  English  Baptist  mission- 
aries on  the  principle  adopted  by  the  American  Baptist 
board.  It  was  stated  in  the  application  that  the  words 
"baptize"  and  "  baptism  "  had  been  rendered  bywords 
meaning  "  immerse  "  and  "  immersion,"  and  that  the  Bible 


CiiAi'.  iiJ.]  BAPTISTS  PROTEST.  429 

Society  at  Calcutta  had  on  this  account  refused  to  aid  in 
its  circulation.  The  application  was  referred  to  a  commit- 
tee of  seven,  one  for  each  leading  denomination.  The 
Baptist  member  seems  to  have  been  alone  in  insisting  that 
the  grant  be  made,  or  that  it  be  not  refused  on  the  ground 
of  the  rendering  instead  of  the  transference  of  the  words 
mentioned.  In  February,  1836,  after  prolonged  discus- 
sion, the  board  of  managers  of  the  American  Bible  Society 
passed  the  following  resolution  by  a  vote  of  thirty  to  four- 
teen :  "  That  in  appropriating  money  for  translating,  print- 
ing, or  distributing  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  foreign  lan- 
guages, the  managers  feel  at  liberty  to  encourage  only  such 
versions  as  conform  in  the  principle  of  their  translation  to 
the  common  English  version  ;  at  least  so  far  that  all  the 
religious  denominations  represented  in  this  society  can 
consistently  use  and  circulate  said  versions  in  their  several 
schools  and  communities."  This  action  was  confirmed  in 
the  fcjllowing  May  by  the  society  at  its  annual  meeting. 
A  protest,  which  the  board  refused  to  receive  or  allow  to 
be  read,  was  presented  by  the  Baptist  meml^ers  of  the 
board  of  managers.  The  following  extract  will  give  its 
purport:  "Conscientiously  believing  that  every  translator 
of  the  Bible  is  under  a  sacred  obligation  to  regard  the 
original  Hebrew  and  Greek  as  the  only  standard,  and 
neither  to  misrepresent  nor  conceal  the  least  portion  of 
divine  truth,  but  to  transmit  into  his  version,  with  all  pos- 
sible fidelity,  the  precise  meaning  of  the  inspired  text ; 
believing,  too,  that  while  the  constitution  of  the  American 
Bible  Society  proposes  to  aid  in  the  circulation  of  the 
Scriptures  '  in  other  countries,  whether  Christian,  Mahom- 
'medan,  or  pagan,'  it  nowhere  expresses  any  purpose  of 
requiring  that  the  translations  into  foreign  tongues  shall 
be  conformed  in  principle  to  the  English  version ;  and, 
further,  believing  that  the  Baptist  denomination,  as  a  con- 


430  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

stituent  member  of  the  society,  and  upon  the  principle  of 
a  fair  co-partnership,  to  which  it  has  brought  its  full  share 
of  capital  and  of  labor,  is  entitled  to  a  portion  of  the  ap- 
propriations made  for  distributing  the  Bible  at  home  and 
abroad ;  and  that  the  adoption,  by  the  board,  of  any  rule 
of  action  not  recognized  in  the  constitution,  and  tending 
to  exclude  the  said  denomination  from  these  advantages, 
is  a  violation  of  the  constitutional  compact,  a  virtual  dis- 
solution of  the  original  firm,  and  on  principles  of  both  law 
and  equity  would  oblige  the  American  Bible  Society  to 
refund  a  proper  share  of  the  capital  now  in  their  posses- 
sion, .  .  .  the  undersigned  members,  as  aforesaid,  of  the 
board  of  managers  do  hereby  protest  against  the  principle 
and  bearing  of  the  said  resolution."  The  signers  then 
proceed  to  give  fourteen  definite  reasons  for  their  action. 
The  names  affixed  are  Spencer  H.  Cone,  Archibald  Mac- 
lay,  Jonathan  Going,  Charles  G.  Somers,  William  Judd, 
William  Colgate,  Charles  C.  P.  Crosby,  William  Winter- 
ton,  Octavius  Winslow,  Luke  Baker,  M.D.,  and  Samuel 
Barnard.  T.  R.  Green  joined  in  the  protest,  giving  rea- 
sons of  his  own. 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  treasury  of  the  society  was 
"full  to  overflowing,"  and  the  only  reason  for  refusing 
funds  for  the  Baptist  version  in  question  was  the  fact  that 
the  Greek  words  for  "baptize"  and  "baptism"  were 
rendered  literally  according  to  the  best  pedobaptist  lexi- 
cographers. 

On  May  12,  1836,  the  day  after  the  American  Bible 
Society  approved  of  the  resolution  of  its  board,  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  leading  Baptists  met  in  the  Oliver  Street 
Baptist  Church,  of  New  York,  and  formed  the  American 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  the  "  single  object  "  of  which 
was  declared  to  be  "  to  promote  a  wider  circulation  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  in  the  most  faithful  versions  that  can  be 


Chap,  in.]  BIBLE    COXTROVERSIES.  431 

procured."  Obstacles  were  put  in  the  way  of  their  ob- 
taining a  charter,  and  it  was  not  until  1848  that  incorpo- 
ration was  secured.  In  1837  "  the  largest  and  most  intel- 
ligent assemblage  of  Baptist  ministers  and  laymen  "  that 
had  ever  been  held,  consisting  of  three  hundred  and  ninety 
delegates  from  twenty- three  States,  assembled  in  Philadel- 
phia in  this  interest.  The  organization  was  completed,  and 
it  was  resolved  "  that,  under  existing  circumstances,  it  is 
the  indispensable  duty  of  the  Baptist  denomination  to  or- 
ganize a  distinct  society  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the 
translation,  printing,  and  circulation  of  the  Scriptures." 
It  was  further  resolved  "  that  the  society  confine  its  efforts, 
during  the  ensuing  year,  to  the  circulation  of  the  v/ord  of 
God  in  foreign  tongues."  This  last  resolution  was  a  re- 
sult of  an  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  some  to  attempt  to 
compete  with  the  American  Bible  Society  on  the  home 
field,  or  to  lose  the  advantages  of  participating,  as  a  de- 
nomination, in  the  large  facilities  for  Bible  publication  and 
circulation  that  Baptists  had  aided  in  creating.  The  new 
society  did  a  noble  work  in  aiding  in  the  publication  of 
versions  of  the  Scriptures  in  Burmah  and  in  India.  Di- 
vided counsels,  however,  soon  threatened  the  existence  of 
the  society  and  the  unity  and  harmony  of  the  denomina- 
tion. As  its  operations  were  to  be  confined  to  aiding 
missionaries  in  publishing  their  versions,  many  brethren 
could  see  no  reason  why  the  work  should  not  be  done  by 
the  Foreign  Mission  Board,  and  regarded  the  maintenance 
of  a  special  agency  as  superfluous.  Others  insisted  on  the 
application  of  the  principle  of  faithful  versions,  with  a  ren- 
dering of  the  words  for  "  baptize  "  and  "  baptism,"  to  Eng- 
lish versions,  and  when  a  majority  of  the  society  had  re- 
solved (May  25,  1850)  "  that  this  society,  in  its  issues  and 
circulation  of  the  English  Scriptures,  shall  be  restricted  to 
the  commonly  received  version,  without  note  or  comment," 


432  THE  BAPTISTS.  [n.K.  iii. 

the  advocates  of  "  translation  "  versus  "  transferring  "  met 
in  New  York,  at  the  house  of  William  Colgate  (May  27, 
1850),  and  organized  the  American  Bible  Union,  the 
object  of  which  was  declared  to  be  "  procuring  and  circu- 
lating the  most  faithful  versions  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
in  all  languages." 

Thus  the  American  ]3ible  Union  came  at  once  into  the 
sharpest  rivalry  with  the  American  and  Foreign  Bible  So- 
ciety, and  so  far  as  this  question  was  concerned  the  de- 
nomination was  grievously  divided.  As  there  will  be  no 
opportunity  to  revert  to  this  matter,  it  may  be  added  here 
that  the  Bible  Union  procured  the  services  of  some  of  the 
most  eminent  scholars  in  the  denomination,  notably  Drs. 
Thomas  J.  Conant  and  Horatio  B.  Hackett,  and  published 
annotated  versions  of  the  New  Testament  books  and  of 
a  large  number  of  the  Old.  These  versions  are  of  high 
critical  merit  and  ha\'e  no  doubt  been  of  considerable 
value  to  students;  but  they  failed  to  supplant  the  author- 
ized version  in  popular  use.  The  pronounced  hostility  of 
the  friends  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  and 
the  lack  of  popular  interest  in  a  revised  version  doubtless 
made  the  work  of  the  Bible  Union  largely  ineffective.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  former  society  was  antagonized  by 
friends  of  the  Bible  Union  and  those  of  the  Missionary 
Union;  and  its  sources  of  supply  were  soon  largely  cut 
off.  Many  had  come  to  feel  that  the  existence  of  these 
two  rival  and  antagonistic  societies  constituted  a  serious 
obstacle  to  denominational  unity  and  progress.  Negotia- 
tions with  the  American  Bible  Society  were  reopened  in 
1879,  but  failed  to  result  in  any  material  modification  of 
the  society's  previous  action.  In  February,  1882,  Dr. 
Edward  Bright,  who  had  taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  Bible 
controversies,  and  who  was  deeply  concerned  for  the  uni- 
fication  of  the  denomination,  published  a  brief  article  in 


Chap,  hi.]  EXD    OF  BIBLE    CONTROVERSY.  433 

"  The  Examiner,"  of  which  he  was  editor,  expressing  his 
conviction  that  Baptists  could  not  expect  fair  treatment 
from  the  American  Bible  Society,  which  had  **  made  itself 
the  narrowest  sort  of  a  pedobaptist  institution,"  and  recom- 
mending that  Baptists  "  betake  themselves,  with  self-re- 
specting dignity  and  fidelity,  to  the  doing  of  their  own 
Bible  work  through  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union  and  the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society." 
This  recommendation  was  carried  out  at  a  great  mass- 
meeting  of  the  denomination  at  Saratoga  in  May,  1883. 
The  two  rival  societies,  after  an  ineffective  struggle  against 
overwhelming  denominational  sentiment,  quietly  went  out 
of  existence,  the  Missionary  Union  assuming  entire  re- 
sponsibility for  foreign  Bible  work  and  the  Publication 
Society  undertaking  to  circulate  the  Bible  Union  version 
as  well  as  the  Anglo-American  revised  version.  Thus 
was  settled  one  of  the  most  troublesome  controversies  in 
which  the  denomination  was  ever  involved,  and  the  settle- 
ment proved  complete. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  obstacles  pre- 
sented to  missionary  and  educational  enterprise  by  igno- 
rance and  prejudice.  The  friends  of  education  and  missions 
in  1 8 14  constituted  a  small  minority  of  the  denomination. 
Many  Baptists  from  the  beginning  actively  opposed  the 
advance  movement,  and  their  opposition  increased  in  bit- 
terness as  the  missionary  and  educational  enterprise  went 
forward.  The  anti-missionary  mo\-ement  constitutes  the 
saddest  and  most  discreditable  feature  of  modern  Baptist 
history,  as  the  highly  successful  missionary  movement 
constitutes  one  of  the  chief  glories  of  the  denomination. 

From  1820  onward  the  anti-effort  Baptists  became  ag- 
gressive and  in  many  cases  malignant.  The  formation  of 
the  State  Conventions  brought  them  out  into  pronounced 
hostility  to  missions,  education,  Sunday-schools,  Bible  and 


434  '^^^^^  BAPTISTS.  [I'lK.  111. 

tract  societies,  and  in  general  to  what  they  were  pleased  to 
style  "human  institutions."  The  Conventions  organized 
to  promote  these  and  like  agencies  for  the  spread  of  the 
gospel  were  usually  constituted  by  a  few  representatives 
of  a  few  Associations.  It  was  impossible  to  induce  a  ma- 
jority of  the  delegates  of  most  of  the  Associations  to  ap- 
point delegates  for  the  formation  of  State  organizations. 
The  persistent  efforts  of  the  zealous  men  who  had  the  cause 
of  missions  and  education  at  heart  to  extend  the  sphere  of 
the  influence  of  the  Conventions  and  to  secure  associational 
action  in  favor  of  the  enterprises  of  the  denomination 
aroused  the  anti-effort  party  to  almost  fanatical  opposi- 
tion. In  many  cases  where  an  Association  voted  to  take 
up  the  enterprises  of  the  denomination  the  minority  with- 
drew and  constituted  a  new  Association.  In  order  to 
guard  against  the  encroachment  of  "  human  institutions  " 
upon  such  new  domains  the  anti-effort  Associations  in 
many  instances  passed  resolutions  disfellowshiping  any 
church  that  should  take  any  part  in  missionary  or  educa- 
tional enterprises,  and  churches  of  this  persuasion  made 
such  action  on  the  part  of  individual  members  a  matter  of 
discipline.  The  Hepzibah  Association  of  Georgia  rejected 
in  1826  the  proposal  of  two  of  its  churches  that  messen- 
gers be  sent  to  view  the  order  of  the  General  Association 
(Convention),  and  the  decorum  of  the  body  was  so  altered 
as  to  make  it  disorderly  for  any  brother  to  move  for  a 
correspondence,  either  by  letter  or  messenger,  with  any 
General  Association  or  Committee,  missionary  society  or 
board,  and  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the  moderator  to  re- 
prove any  such  violation  of  the  decorum.  A  few  speci- 
mens of  the  utterances  of  individuals  and  Associations  of 
the  anti-effort  party  will  suffice  to  illustrate  the  spirit  of 
the  movement.  The  passages  quoted  are  mild  and  deco- 
rous in  comparison  with  others  that  might  be  given.      An 


Chap,  hi.]  ANTI-EFFORT  BAPTISTS.  435 

Alabama  minister  wrote  :  "  I  have  known  some  preachers 
who  at  first  thought  all  benevolent  institutions  were  wrong 
but  the  Foreign  Missions ;  and  after  a  while  they  would 
receive  another  trait  of  the  beast  as  right,  and  so  on  until 
they  would  receive  all  but  the  tail  (Temperance  Societies)  ; 
and  that  they  would  oppose  with  all  their  might  for  awhile, 
but  finding  it  was  connected  with  the  body,  they  would 
swallow  that.  I  will  tell  you,  my  brother,  what  it  makes 
me  think  of:  it  is  just  like  a  snake  trying  to  swallow  a 
squirrel.  It  will  begin  at  the  head  and  swallow  that  first, 
and  so  on  until  it  comes  to  the  tail.  Then  it  tries  every 
stratagem  to  get  rid  of  swallowing  the  tail;  but  finding  it 
is  connected  with  the  body,  it  must  either  vomit  all  back 
or  take  down  the  tail,  although  averse  to  it;  for  if  they 
vomit  up  the  body  and  head,  they  will  be  laughed  at  for 
saying  and  contending  that  those  things  are  right."  An- 
other minister  in  the  same  State  wrote :  "  Do  not  forget 
the  enemy  [missionaries],  bear  them  in  mind;  the  howling 
destructive  wolves,  the  ravenous  dogs,  and  the  filthy,  and 
their  numerous  whelps.  By  a  minute  observation  and  the 
consultation  of  the  sacred,  never-failing,  descriptive  chart, 
even  their  physiognomy  in  dress,  mien,  and  carriage,  and 
many  other  indented,  indelible,  descriptive  marks,  too 
tedious  at  present  to  write.  The  wolfish  smell  is  enough 
to  alarm,  to  create  su.spicion,  and  to  ascertain;  the  dogs' 
teeth  are  noted,  and  the  wolves  for  their  peculiar  and  dis- 
tinct howl,"  etc.  Another  compared  "  theological  schools 
to  make  preachers"  to  "the  bottomless  pit  spoken  of  in 
Revelations."  "For,"  he  added,  "a  bottomless  pit  has 
no- foundation  in  the  Scriptures  as  an  institution  of  God." 
A  Georgia  minister  is  said  to  have  declared  that  "  if  an 
angel  was  to  come  from  heaven  and  declare  the  mission- 
ary cause  was  of  God,  he  would  not  believe  it."  If  it  be 
true  that  "  he  immediately  lost  his  speech,  and  remained 


436  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

in  that  deplorable  situation  until  he  died,"  as  is  related  on 
credible  authority,  it  was  no  more  than  such  blasphemy 
deserved.  The  following  is  from  a  circular  letter  of  one 
of  the  Alabama  anti-efTort  Associations :  "  And  now  for  a 
moment  let  us  notice  the  language  of  some  of  the  votaries 
of  the  new  system.  They  say  God  complains — my  people 
perish  for  lack  of  knowledge.  They  also  say  that  if  we 
urge  on  the  mighty  cause  of  education,  Bible  and  tract 
distribution,  and  through  missionary  effort,  we  know  that 
the  millennial  day  will  soon  dawn  upon  the  world.  They 
entreat  you  to  hasten,  for  if  we  pause — if  we  hesitate — 
people  will  perish  forever.  .  .  .  But  again  we  are  told  by 
some  that  we  need  an  improved  ministry ;  or,  in  other 
words,  an  educated  ministry.  As  to  the  education  we 
know  no  objection,  provided  it  is  received  before  a  call  to 
the  ministry,  for  Paul  says,  '  Let  every  man  abide  in  the 
same  calling  wherein  he  was  called.'  It  is  also  said  that 
pious  men  that  are  called  of  God  to  preach  his  gospel — 
that  they,  in  their  ignorance,  wall  ordain  other  ignorant 
men,  and  in  that  way  a  great  deal  of  harm  will  be  done. 
Oh,  what  an  insult  to  Deity,  that  men  should  say  that 
God  has  no  power  to  qualify  men  for  the  ministry,  after 
he  has  called  them!"  Another  Alabama  Association  de- 
clared itself  as  follows :  "  We  must  decline  all  fellowship 
for,  or  correspondence  with,  such  Associations  and  profess- 
ors of  the  Baptists,  or  of  any  other  name,  as  have  departed 
from  the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel,  or  have  attempted 
to  add  to  the  divine  decree  any  of  the  institutions  of  human 
inventions,  of  whatever  name  they  may  be  called.  The 
w^ant  of  union  where  all  this  variety  of  sentiment  has  ex- 
isted has  been  painfully  felt  by  the  most  of  our  churches 
and  Associations,  as  long  as  ever  they  have  suffered  that 
woman  Jezebel  to  hold  a  place  among  us.  She  calls  her- 
self a  prophetess,  but  her  efforts  are  directed  to  the  pro- 


Chap,  hi.]  OPPOSITION  TO   MISSIONS.  437 

duction  of  a  strange  sect,  which,  whenever  brought  forth, 
causes  divisions,  trouble,  and  distress;  and  because  she 
claims  to  be  a  prophetess,  she  excites  the  sympathies  of 
many  pleaders  for  her.  But  blessed  be  the  name  of  our 
God,  he  has  interposed  his  seasonable  aid  in  our  behalf, 
has  cast  her  ladyship  into  a  bed,  and  has  killed,  and,  if 
we  mistake  not,  is  now  killing  her  children  with  death." 
This  and  the  preceding  writing  were  set  forth  as  late  as 

1838. 

Alabama  was  settled  largely  from  western  Georgia, 
where  Baptists  of  the  more  illiberal  type  abounded.  For 
this  reason  the  friends  of  missions  had  more  to  contend 
with  here  than  in  many  other  communities;  but  their  zeal 
triumphed  over  obstacles,  and  the  missionary  cause  went 
gloriously  forward.  But  throughout  the  South  and  the 
West,  and  even  in  many  of  the  older  communities  in  the 
East,  the  missionary  movement,  with  its  adjuncts,  was  op- 
posed with  a  rancor  and  a  persistence  that  greatly  tried 
the  faith  and  the  patience  of  evangelical  Baptists. 

The  most  striking  instance  of  the  temporary  triumph  of 
the  anti-missionary  cause  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  the 
Baptists  of  Tennessee.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present 
period  nearly  all  of  the  churches  w^ere  friendly  to  the 
foreign  mission  cause.  Rice  made  several  tours  of  the 
churches  and  was  nearly  everywhere  well  received.  He 
secured  the  organization  of  a  State  Foreign  Mission 
Society,  and  several  of  the  leading  Associations  became 
directly  auxiliary  to  the  General  Convention.  Until  after 
1820  opposition  to  missions  did  not  assume  an  organized 
or  malignant  form.  Several  circumstances  combined  to 
make  the  great  majority  of  the  Baptists  of  the  State  anti- 
missionary,  so  that,  in  the  words  of  a  contemporary,  "  the 
current  of  prejudice  had  gradually  swollen,  until  now  no 
one  dared  to  resist  it.     Not  a  man  ventured  to  open  his 


438  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

mouth  in  favor  of  any  benevolent  enterprise  or  action. 
The  missionary  societies  were  dissolved,  and  the  Associa- 
tions rescinded  all  their  resolutions  by  which  they  were  in 
any  way  connected  with  these  measures,  and,  in  this  re- 
spect, the  spirit  of  death  rested  upon  the  whole  people! 
Subsequently,  and  until  the  present  time  [1845],  this  state 
of  things  has  been  kept  up,  wherever  it  was  possible,  by 
the  same  means,  and  by  industriously  circulating,  in  addi- 
tion, such  papers  as  '  The  Old-Baptist  Banner,'  of  Tennes- 
see, 'The  Primitive  Baptist,'  of  North  Carolina,  and  'The 
Signs  of  the  Times,'  of  New  York." 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  decline  of  interest  in  for- 
eign missions  under  the  influences  referred  to  is  found  in 
the  foreign  mission  contributions  from  Ohio.  In  1820 
$547.09  were  contributed.  Nothing  was  received  from 
the  State  from  1821  to  1829,  when  $10  were  contributed. 
The  contribution  for  1830  was  $5.  In  1821-22  $985.69 
were  contributed  for  the  Indian  mission  at  Fort  Wayne, 
but  support  was  entirely  withdrawn  from  this  as  well  as 
from  the  foreign  work  during  the  following  years.  In 
1845,  of  the  thirty-four  Virginia  Associations,  twelve,  in- 
cluding the  old  Ketokton,  were  anti-missionary. 

This  lamentable  retrograde  movement,  which  affected 
the  neighboring  States  on  all  sides,  may  be  partially  ac- 
counted for  as  follows:  i.  The  general  illiteracy  of  the 
population,  resulting  from  the  fact  that  the  territory  was 
newly  settled  and  that  the  population  had  been  thoroughly 
occupied  in  clearing  the  land  and  bringing  it  into  cuhi\'a- 
tion.  2.  The  general  pre\alence  of  a  high  type  of  Cal- 
vinistic  doctrine,  tending  to  the  disparagement  of  human 
agency.  This  in  the  hands  of  illiterate  but  strong-willed 
ministers,  who  felt  that  their  influence  would  be  lost  if  the 
mission  cause  with  its  educational  adjuncts  should  triumph, 
became  a  leading  ground  for  opposing  missions  and  edu- 


ciiAP.  111.]  cjrsEs  OF  orrosiTiox.  439 

cation.  3.  The  encroachments  of  the  Methodists,  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterians,  and  the  followers  of  Alexan- 
der Campbell,  with  their  Arminian  teachings,  tended,  by 
arousing  the  antagonism  of  these  hyper- Calvinistic  Bap- 
tists, to  drive  them  to  the  extremes  of  antinomianism. 
4.  The  activity  of  Daniel  Parker,  whose  baleful  influence 
in  opposition  to  missions  far  surpassed  that  of  any  other 
individual.  He  is  thus  described  by  J.  M.  Peck :  "  Raised 
on  the  frontiers  of  Georgia,  without  education,  uncouth  in 
manners,  slovenly  in  dress,  diminutive  in  person,  unpre- 
possessing in  appearance,  with  shriveled  features  and  a 
small,  piercing  eye,  few  men,  for  a  series  of  years,  have 
exerted  wider  influence  on  the  lower  and  less  educated 
class  of  frontier  people.  With  a  zeal  and  enthusiasm 
bordering  on  insanit}-,  firmness  that  amounted  to  obsti- 
nacy, and  perseverance  that  v/ould  have  done  honor  to  a 
good  cause,  Daniel  Parker  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost 
to  induce  the  cliurches  within  his  range  to  declare  non- 
fellowship  with  all  Baptists  who  united  with  any  mission- 
ary or  other  benevolent  (or,  as  he  called  them,  newfangled) 
societies.  He  possessed  a  mind  of  singular  and  original 
cast.  In  doctrine  he  was  an  antinomian  from  the  first, 
but  he  could  describe  the  process  of  conviction  and  the 
joys  of  conversion,  and  of  dependence  on  God,  with  pe- 
culiar feeling  and  effect.  .  .  .  He  fully  believed,  and  pro- 
duced the  impression  on  others,  that  he  spoke  by  immedi- 
ate inspiration.  Repeatedly  have  we  heard  him  when  his 
mind  seemed  to  rise  above  its  own  powers,  and  he  w^ould 
discourse  for  a  few  moments  on  the  divine  attributes,  or 
some  doctrinal  subject,  with  such  brilliancy  of  thought 
and  force  and  correctness  of  language  as  would  astonish 
men  of  education  and  talents.  Then,  again,  it  would 
seem  as  though  he  was  perfectly  bewildered  in  a  mist 
of   abstruse    subtleties."     That  such  a  man  should  have 


440  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Tek.  hi. 

wielded  a  vast  and  widespread  influence  is  no  more  than 
might  have  been  expected,  especiahy  as  his  teachings 
appealed  powerfully  to  the  selfish  instincts  of  the  class  of 
men  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  Under  such  inspiration 
the  hitherto  latent  and  moderately  expressed  opposition 
to  missions,  Bible  societies,  education,  tract  and  temper- 
ance societies,  Sunday-schools,  prayer-meetings,  and  other 
evangelizing  agencies  was  fanned  into  a  fury,  not  only  in 
Tennessee  and  the  Southwest,  but  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  throughout  the  country.  It  may  be  added  that 
Parker  combined  with  the  fatalistic  antinomianism  that 
was  common  to  the  anti-efi'ort  party  a  crude  and  disgust- 
ing type  of  gnostic  dualism.  This  was  embodied  in  cer- 
tain pamphlets  published  in  1826-29  on  the  doctrine  of 
Two  Seeds.  ^ 

It  is  highly  probable  that,  apart  from  the  development 
among  Baptists  of  this  unevangelical  type  of  Calvinism, 
with  its  bigotry  and  intolerance,  Methodists  and  Cumber- 
land Presbyterians  would  have  made  their  way  in  regions 
preoccupied  by  Baptists  far  more  slowly  than  was  actually 
the  case.  A  large  proportion  of  the  Baptists  of  the  South- 
west were  so  perverse  in  doctrine  and  so  unamiable  in 
spirit  that  milder  and  more  evangelical  types  of  Christian- 
ity were  imperatively  called  for,  and  those  who  had  once 
been  repelled  by  the  extravagances  of  so-called  Baptists 
were  more  likely  to  be  attracted  by  non-Baptist  parties 
than  by  Baptists  of  a  more  evangelical  type.  It  is  prob- 
able, moreover,  that  if  the  Baptists  of  the  Southwest  had 
been  thoroughly  evangelical  the  secession  under  Alexan- 
der Campbell  would  never  have  occurred.  A  contempo- 
rary writer,  in  attempting  to  account  for  the  prevalence  of 

1  For  an  account  of  Parker's  doctrines,  and  statistical  and  other  informa- 
tion about  anti-missionary  Baptists  in  general,  see  vol.  i.  of  the  present  series, 
pp.  45-54-  According  to  Dr.  Carroll,  Parker  was  born  in  Virginia,  and  not 
in  Georgia,  as  stated  by  Peck  in  the  passage  cjuoted  above. 


Chap,  in.]"  FR0GI^:ESS  XOTIVITIISTANDIXG.  441 

anti-missionary  sentiment  in  Tennessee  up  to  1845,  re- 
marks: "Some  of  the  prime  friends  of  missions  [among 
the  Baptists]  became  converts  to  Mr.  Alexander  Camp- 
bell's system,  and  joined  him.  Thus  missions  became  be- 
yond measure  odious."  The  spread,  if  not  the  rise,  of  the 
Disciples,  as  a  sect,  was  undoubtedly  due  far  more  to  the 
excrescences  that  had  well-nigh  destroyed  the  life  of  the 
Baptist  denomination  throughout  extended  regions  than 
to  anything  inherent  in  the  Baptist  system;  and  some  of 
the  erroneous  features  of  the  Disciples'  system  may  have 
been  a  result  of  extreme  reaction  against  the  errors  of  un- 
evangelical  Baptists. 

Notwithstanding  the  desperate  efforts  to  destroy  the 
missionary  and  educational  causes,  they  gained  steadily  in 
popular  favor.  By  1845  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
was  sustaining  I  7  missions  (of  which  6  were  among  North 
American  Indians),  130  stations  and  out-stations,  109  mis- 
sionaries and  assistants  (of  whom  42  were  preachers),  and 
123  native  preachers  and  assistants.  There  had  been  or- 
ganized 79  churches,  which  had  a  membership  of  more 
than  8000.  The  number  of  baptisms  during  the  year  had 
been  2593.  The  receipts  for  the  year  ending  April,  1845, 
were  $82,302.95.  This  amount  had  been  exceeded  only 
once,  in  1839,  when  it  reached  $109,135.21.  The  mis- 
sions of  the  board,  outside  of  America,  were  as  follows :  3 
in  Europe  (France,  Germany  and  Denmark,  and  Greece), 
1  in  West  Africa,  and  7  in  Asia  (Burmah,  India,  Assam, 
Siam,  and  China).  The  Home  Mission  Society  reported 
for  the  same  year  cash  receipts  of  $18,675.68  (with  $30,- 
625.21  reported  as  raised  by  State  Conventions  for  similar 
work).  It  employed  during  the  year  99  missionaries  in 
eighteen  States.  The  Mississippi  Valley  was  "  still  the 
principal  theater  of  its  action."  In  connection  with  the 
society  5  i  churches  had  been  constituted  during  the  year 


442  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  hi. 

and  32  ministers  ordained;  801  had  been  added  to  its 
churches  and  stations  by  baptism;  and  145  Sunday- 
schools  had  been  estabhshed,  with  3910  pupils.  During 
the  same  year  the  American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
received  $34,930  and  did  a  large  home  and  foreign  work 
in  Bible  publication  and  distribution.  The  receipts  of  the 
Publication  Society  for  the  same  year  were  $20,803.78, 
and  it  reported  a  large  and  beneficent  activity. 

By  1844  the  denomination  had  reached  a  membership 
in  the  United  States  of  720,046,  with  9385  churches  and 
6364  ministers.  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  181 2  the 
Baptists  of  the  United  States  numbered  172,972,  and  in 
1 8 14,  the  beginning  of  the  present  period,  about  200,000. 
In  thirty  years  the  denomination  had  increased  about  360 
percent.  During  this  period  the  population  of  the  United 
States  had  increased  from  7,210,969  to  17,227,454,  or  less 
than  140  percent,  (census  figures  for  18 10  and  1840). 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    SOUTHERN    BAPTIST    CONVENTION.^ 

Long  before  1844  the  slavery  question  had  come  to  be 
agitated  in  Baptist  circles.  The  Baptists  of  the  South  had, 
as  a  body,  identified  themselves  with  the  institution,  and 
were  prepared  not  only  to  practice  it,  but  to  defend  it  with 
pen  and  sword.  The  sentiment  against  domestic  slavery 
grew  rapidly  at  the  North,  and  many  Baptists  were  com- 
ing to  feel  that  duty  required  them  not  only  to  protest 
against  the  enslavement  of  their  fellow- men  and  brethren 
in  Christ,  but  to  use  every  practicable  means  for  the  over- 
throw of  an  institution  which  they  looked  upon  as  un- Chris- 
tian and  immoral.  Up  to  1844  Baptists  of  the  North  and 
South  had  heartily  cooperated  in  the  Triennial  Convention 
and  in  the  various  general  denominational  societies  that 
had  gathered  around  this  body.  The  Southern  churches 
had  contributed  their  full  share  toward  the  funds  of  these 
societies,  and  many  of  the  ablest  leaders  in  general  denom- 
inational work  were  Southern  men. 

In  the  winter  of  1839-40  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
passed  a  resolution  asserting  the  absolute  neutrality  of  the 
board  on  the  slavery  question.  This  resolution  was  reen- 
acted  in  1843  at  the  Albany  anniversaries.      It  was  inevi- 

1  See  "Annual  Reports  of  the  S.  B.  C."  ;  Tiipper,  "  Dec.  of  For.  Miss."  ; 
Cuthbert,  "  R.  Fuller";  Broadus,  "  T-  P-  Boyce "  ;  "  Bapt.  Memorial," 
1845  seq.;  Fuller  and  Wayland,  "  Letters  on  Domestic  Slavery";  Sampey, 
"  Southern  Bapt.  Theol.  Sem.";  Cathcart ;  State  denominational  histories  as 
in  Bibliography. 

443  . 


444  "^^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  III. 

table  that  at  the  great  public  gatherings  brethren  of  strong 
antislavery  convictions  and  impulsive  temperament  should 
express  their  sentiments  on  this  question  in  such  a  way  as 
to  offend  their  Southern  brethren,  who  were  highly  sensi- 
tive to  any  unfavorable  allusion  to  an  institution  with  which 
they  and  their  constituents  were  so  fully  identified. 

In  the  Triennial  Convention  for  1844,  Richard  Fuller,  of 
South  Carolina,  introduced  the  following  resolution,  with 
the  hope  of  rigorously  excluding  any  allusion  to  slavery 
in  the  meetings  of  the  body  and  thus  making  possible 
continued  cooperation  of  North  and  South:  "Whereas, 
Some  misapprehension  exists  in  certain  parts  of  the  coun- 
try as  to  the  design  or  character  of  this  Convention,  and 
it  is  most  desirable  that  such  misapprehension  should  be 
removed;  therefore,  Resolved,  That  this  Convention  is  a 
corporation  with  limited  pov.  ers,  for  a  specific  purpose  de- 
fined in  its  constitution;  and  therefore,  that  its  members 
are  delegateti  to  meet  solely  for  the  transaction  of  business 
prescribed  by  the  said  constitution ;  and  that  cooperation 
in  this  body  does  not  involve  nor  imply  any  concert  or 
sympathy  as  to  any  matters  foreign  from  the  object  des- 
ignated as  aforesaid."  This  resolution  was  seconded  by 
Spencer  H.  Cone  and  supported  by  William  Hague,  J.  ]3. 
Jeter,  and  others,  but  was  strongly  opposed  by  Nathaniel 
Colver,  of  Massachusetts,  who  did  not  wish  to  be  fettered 
in  respect  to  any  subject.  It  was  finally  withdrawn  to 
make  way  for  the  following,  which  was  unanimously 
adopted  :  "  Whereas,  There  exists  in  various  sections  of 
our  country  an  impression  that  our  present  organization 
involves  the  fellowship  of  the  institution  of  domestic  slav- 
ery, or  of  certain  associations  which  are  designed  to  oppose 
this  institution  ;  Resolved,  That  in  cooperating  together  as 
members  of  this  Convention  in  the  work  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, we  disclaim  all  sanction,  either  express  or  implied, 


CiiAi'.  i\.J    FULLER   AXD    WAYLAXD    OX  SLAJ'EKV.  445 

whether  of  slavery  or  of  antislav^ery,  but  as  indivicUials 
we  are  perfectly  free  both  to  express  and  promote  our 
own  views  on  these  subjects  in  a  Christian  manner  and 
spirit."  In  the  course  of  the  discussion  Dr.  Fuller,  one  of 
the  ablest  and  most  moderate  of  the  Southern  leaders,  is 
said  to  have  remarked  that  he  was  himself  entirely  calm 
on  the  subject  of  slavery.  He  had  examined  it ;  he  had 
felt  deeply  upon  it.  He  was  not  convinced  that  slavery 
is  a  sin  personally ;  he  regarded  it  as  a  great  evil ;  his 
brethren  at  the  South  did  not ;  he  hoped  and  prayed  that 
the  time  would  soon  come  when  it  would  be  done  away. 
Some  time  after  the  Convention  of  1844  the  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  was  said  to  have  procured  the  resigna- 
tion of  John  Bushyhead,  a  highly  respected  Indian  Baptist 
preacher,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  slave-holder.  The 
impression  commonly  prevailed  in  the  South  thenceforth 
that  slave-holders  would  be  rigorously  excluded  from  ap- 
pointment as  missionaries,  agents,  or  officers  of  the  board. 
In  1844  Richard  Fuller  addressed  a  communication  to 
the  editor  of  "  The  Christian  Reflector,"  in  reply  to  certain 
antislavery  utterances  that  had  appeared  in  that  journal. 
He  sought  to  fortify  his  position  by  referring  to  certain 
statements  in  Wayland's  "  Elements  of  Moral  Science." 
As  Wayland  was  a  pronounced,  though  moderate,  anti- 
slavery  man,  such  a  use  of  his  authority  drew  forth  an  ex- 
planation of  his  position.  Wayland  represented  the  best 
culture,  wisdom,  and  spirit  of  the  Northern  Baptists,  as  did 
Fuller  those  of  the  Southern  Baptists.  It  was  fortunate 
that  two  such  men  should  be  led  to  discuss  a  question  of 
so  vital  importance.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  both 
writers  were  scrupulously  courteous  and  as  conciliatory  as 
the  circumstances  would  allow.  Fuller's  attitude  toward 
this  question  has  already  been  referred  to.  Both  writers 
considered  the  question  on  ethical  and  Scriptural  grounds, 


446  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

reaching  opposite  conclusions  as  to  what  is  allowable  for 
American  Christians  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  not 
likely  that  many  converts  were  gained  to  either  side  by 
this  somewhat  prolonged  discussion,  but  it  is  probable  that 
on  both  sides  the  bitterness  of  feeling  aroused  by  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  was  somewhat  allayed.  These  contro- 
versial papers  were  published  in  a  volume  early  in  1845, 
entitled  "Letters  on  Domestic  Slavery." 

The  Alabama  State  Convention  was  the  first  Southern 
body  to  memorialize  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  with  re- 
spect to  its  understood  purpose  to  discriminate  against 
slave-holders  in  the  making  of  appointments.  The  docu- 
ment thus  begins:  "  Whereas,  The  holding  of  property  in 
African  negro  slaves  has  for  some  years  excited  discussion, 
as  a  question  of  morals,  between  different  portions  of  the 
Baptist  denomination  united  in  benevolent  enterprise ;  and 
by  a  large  portion  of  our  brethren  is  now  imputed  to  the 
slave-holders  in  these  Southern  and  Southwestern  States, 
as  a  sin  at  once  grievous,  palpable,  and  disqualifying;  i. 
Resolved,  .  .  .  that  when  one  party  to  a  voluntary  com- 
pact among  Christian  brethren  is  not  willing  to  acknowl- 
edge the  entire  social  equality  with  the  other,  as  to  all  the 
privileges  and  benefits  of  the  union,  nor  even  to  refrain 
from  impeachment  and  annoyance,  united  efforts  between 
such  parties,  even  in  the  sacred  cause  of  Christian  bene\'- 
olence,  cease  to  be  agreeable,  useful,  or  proper.  2.  Re- 
solved, That  our  duty  at  this  crisis  requires  us  to  demand 
from  the  proper  authorities  in  all  those  bodies  to  whose 
funds  we  have  contributed,  or  with  whom  we  have  in  any 
way  been  connected,  the  distinct,  explicit  avowal  tliat  sla\'e- 
holders  are  eligible,  and  entitled,  ecpially  with  non-slave- 
holders, to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  their  se\  eral 
unions;  and  especially  to  recei\e  any  agency,  mission,  or 
other  appointment,  which  may  run  within  the  scope  of  their 


CiiAi'.  iv.J  SOUTIIERX  DISSATISFACTIOX.  447 

operations  or  duties."  It  is  insisted  that  in  case  the  moral 
character  of  an  ajjpHcant  shall  be  called  in  question  an  ap- 
peal shall  be  allowed  to  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
ber. No  funds  are  to  be  forwarded  to  these  societies  until 
satisfactory  answers  shall  have  been  received. 

The  Foreign  Mission  Board  replied  in  a  dignified  and 
conciliatory  way,  but  refused  to  recognize  the  right  of  any 
one,  slave-holder  or  non-slave-holder,  to  appointment  to 
positions  at  the  disposal  of  the  board.  "  In  the  thirty 
years  in  w^hich  the  board  has  existed,  no  slave-holder,  to 
our  knowledge,  has  applied  to  be  a  missionary.  And,  as 
we  send  out  no  domestics  or  servants,  such  an  event  as  a 
missionary  taking  slaves  with  him,  were  it  morally  right, 
could  not,  in  accordance  with  all  our  past  arrangements  or 
present  plans,  possibly  occur.  If,  however,  any  one  should 
offer  himself  as  a  missionar)',  having  slaves,  and  should  in- 
sist on  retaining  them  as  liis  property,  we  could  not  ap- 
point him.  One  thing  is  certain,  we  can  never  be  a  party 
to  any  arrangement  which  would  imply  approbation  of 
slavery." 

This  decision  of  the  board  led  to  the  formal  withdrawal 
of  the  various  Southern  State  Conventions  and  auxiliary 
foreign  mission  societies.  At  the  suggestion  of  the  board 
of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  Virginia,  Southern 
Baptists  were  invited  to  meet  in  convention  at  Augusta, 
Ga.,  in  May,  1845.  I'^  the  meantime  the  national  anni- 
versaries of  the  denomination  were  held  at  Providence. 
The  report  of  a  committee  appointed  by  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  the  previous  year,  to  take 
into  consideration  the  subject  of  an  amicable  dissolution  of 
the  society,  was  the  occasion  of  a  prolonged  discussion. 
President  Wayland  used  his  great  influence  in  vain  to  pre- 
vent precipitate  action  ;  but  radical  antislavery  sentiment 
on  the  one  hand,  and  Southern  sensitiveness  on  the  other, 


448  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

made  further  cooperation  impracticable.  The  necessity 
for  division  was  bewailed  by  the  great  majority  of  the  de- 
nomination, but  it  was  clearly  recognized.  A  committee, 
consisting  of  Maginnis,  Tucker,  Wayland,  Sears,  Webb, 
Taylor,  and  Duncan,  reported  in  fa\-or  of  an  amicable  ar- 
rangement by  which  the  name  ai^d  charter  of  the  society 
should  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  Northern  Baptists,  and 
all  claims  of  contributors  should  be  fairly  and  equitably 
adjusted.      This  report  was  adopted. 

The  Alabama  resolutions  were  considered  by  the  For- 
eign Mission  Board,  and  the  action  of  the  executive,  above 
given,  was  virtually  confirmed.  The  report  of  a  commit- 
tee of  which  President  Wayland  was  chairman,  expressing 
approval  of  the  action  of  the  executive,  was  adopted  after 
much  discussion.  The  report  shows  the  conciliatory  dis- 
position of  the  Northern  leaders,  and  their  conviction  of 
the  impracticability  of  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the 
South.  It  is  as  follows :  "i.  The  spirit  of  the  constitution 
of  the  General  Convention,  as  well  as  the  history  of  its 
proceedings  from  the  beginning,  renders  it  apparent  that 
all  the  members  of  the  Baptist  denomination  in  good  stand- 
ing, whether  at  the  North  or  the  South,  are  constitution- 
ally eligible  to  all  appointments  emanating  either  from  the 
Convention  or  the  board.  2.  While  this  is  the  case,  it  is 
possible  that  contingencies  may  arise  in  which  the  carrying 
out  of  this  principle  might  create  the  necessity  of  making 
appointments  by  which  the  brethren  at  the  North  would 
either  in  fact  or  in  the  opinion  of  the  Christian  community 
become  responsible  for  institutions  w^hich  they  could  not, 
with  a  good  conscience,  sanction.  3.  Were  such  a  case 
to  occur,  we  would  not  desire  our  brethren  to  violate  their 
convictions  of  duty  by  making  such  appointments,  but 
should  consider  it  incumbent  on  them  to  refer  the  case  to 
the  Convention  for  its  decision." 


Cu.w:  i\.J  n/rj.S/0\  IXEVITABLE.  449 

Sentiment  on  both  sides  being  as  it  was,  division  was 
inevitable.  The  attempt  to  cooperate  would  put  such  a 
restraint  upon  discussion  as  to  chill  the  enthusiasm  of 
brethren  at  the  North,  and  there  were  enough  rash  men  on 
both  sides  to  insure  a  certain  amount  of  unpleasantness  at 
each  meeting.  Contributions  to  missions  in  both  sections 
were  sure  to  be  largely  affected  by  the  feeling  of  uncer- 
tainty and  by  the  irritation  that  would  be  involved  in  con- 
tinued cooperation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  separation  of 
North  and  South  in  home  and  foreign  work  would  stimu- 
late in  the  highest  degree  the  activit}'  of  each.  That  the 
division  should  have  been  attended  with  so  little  bitterness 
was  clue  to  the  high  type  of  Christian  character  represented 
by  the  leaders  on  both  sides.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find 
anywhere  in  ecclesiastical  history  an  abler,  wiser,  nobler 
set  of  men  than  those  who  during  these  years  gathered 
from  North,  South,  East,  and  West,  at  the  national  anni- 
versaries, to  deliberate  on  the  great  interests  of  the  de- 
nomination. Richard  Fuller,  Francis  Wayland,  W.  B. 
Johnson,  Spencer  H.  Cone,  John  M.  Peck,  William  Col- 
gate, Rufus  Babcock,  James  B.  Taylor,  Baron  Stow,  Jesse 
H.  Campbell,  Barnas  Sears,  Basil  Manly,  George  B.  Ide, 
Adiel  Sherwood,  Daniel  Sharp,  William  R.  Williams,  John 
L.  Dagg,  Jeremiah  B.  Jeter,  Stephen  W.  Lynd,  along  with 
many  others  that  might  be  named,  formed  in  1845  '^  galaxy 
cf  consecrated  and  cultivated  talent.  Many  of  the  leaders 
of  1 8 14  had  passed  away,  among  them  Richard  Furman, 
Jesse  Mercer,  Thomas  Baldwin,  Lucius  Bolles,  William 
Staughton,  Luther  Rice,  Henry  Holcombe,  Jonathan  Go- 
ing, and  William  T.  Brantly.  Most  of  these  names  are  still 
household  words  among  intelligent  Baptists. 

Great  enthusiasm  attended  the  organization  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Con\ention,  Ma}-  8-1  1,  1845.  There 
were  gathered  in  Augusta,  Ga.,  three   hundred   and   sev- 


450  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Per.  iii. 

enty-seven  delegates  from  Marj/land,  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Ken- 
tucky, and  the  District  of  Columbia.  Dr.  W.  B.  Johnson, 
who  had  served  for  many  years  as  president  of  the  Triennial 
Convention,  was  appointed  president ;  Hon.  W.  Lumpkin, 
of  Georgia,  and  J.  B.  Taylor,  of  Virginia,  vice-presidents ; 
and  Jesse  Hartwell  and  James  C.  Crane,  secretaries.  A 
committee  of  two  representatives  from  each  State  presented 
the  following  resolution,  which  was  unanimously  adopted: 
"  That  for  peace  and  harmony,  and  in  order  to  accomplish 
the  greatest  amount  of  good,  and  for  the  maintenance  of 
those  Scriptural  principles  on  which  the  General  Missionary 
Convention  of  the  Baptist  denomination  of  the  United 
States  was  originally  formed,  it  is  proper  that  this  Con- 
vention at  once  proceed  to  organize  for  the  propagation  of 
the  gospel."  Two  boards  of  managers  were  constituted: 
one  for  foreign  missions,  with  headquarters  at  Richmond, 
Va.,  and  one  for  domestic  missions,  with  headquarters  at 
Marion,  Ala.  The  officers  of  the  former  were  :  J.  B.  Jeter, 
president ;  C.  D.  Mallary,  corresponding  secretary  ;  M.  T. 
Sumner,  recording  secretary;  and  Archibald  Thomas,  treas- 
urer; of  the  latter:  Basil  Manly,  president;  J.  L.  Reynolds, 
corresponding  secretary  ;  M.  P.  Jewett,  recording  secretary  ; 
and  Thomas  Chilton,  treasurer.  Each  board  had  a  vice- 
president  for  each  State  represented.  Provision  was  made 
for  triennial  meetings,  after  the  manner  of  the  older  Con- 
vention. The  Fundamental  Articles  provide  for  the  com- 
bination, for  foreign  and  domestic  mission  work,  and  other 
important  objects  connected  with  the  Redeemer's  kingdom, 
of "  such  portions  of  the  Baptist  denomination  in  the  United 
States  as  may  desire  a  general  organization  for  Christian 
benevolence,  which  shall  fully  respect  the  independence 
and  equal  rights  of  the  churches."  An  address  was  sent 
forth  by  the  Convention  "  to  the  brethren  in  the  United 


Chap.  IV.]       SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION.  45 1 

States ;  to  the  congregations  connected  with  the  respective 
churches;  and  to  all  candid  men,"  the  spirit  of  which  will 
appear  from  the  passages  that  follow :  "  A  painful  division 
has  taken  place  in  the  missionary  operations  of  the  Amer- 
ican Baptists.  We  would  explain  the  origin,  the  principles, 
and  the  objects  of  that  division,  or  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances in  which  tlie  organization  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
Convention  became  necessary.  Let  not  the  extent  of  this 
disunion  be  exaggerated.  At  the  present  time  it  involves 
only  the  foreign  and  domestic  missions  of  the  denomina- 
tion. Northern  and  Southern  Baptists  are  still  brethren. 
They  differ  in  no  article  of  the  faith.  They  are  guided  by 
the  same  principles  of  gospel  order.  Fanatical  attempts 
have  indeed  been  made,  in  some  quarters,  to  exclude  us  of 
the  South  from  Christian  fellowship.  We  do  not  retort 
these  attempts,  and  believe  their  extent  to  be  compara- 
tively limited.  Our  Christian  fellowship  is  not,  as  we  feel, 
a  matter  to  be  obtruded  upon  any  one.  We  abide  by  that 
of  our  God,  his  dear  Son,  and  all  his  baptized  followers. 
The  few  ultra-Northern  brethren  to  whom  we  allude  must 
take  what  course  they  please.  Tlicir  conduct  has  not 
influenced  us  in  this  movement.  We  do  not  regard  the 
rupture  as  extending  to  foundation  principles,  nor  can  we 
think  that  the  great  body  of  our  Northern  brethren  will  so 
regard  it." 

An  historical  recital  of  the  events  that  have  led  up  to 
the  separate  organization  of  the  Southern  Baptists  fol- 
lows, involving  the  charge  of  departure  from  the  original 
principles  of  the  Convention  and  from  the  compromise 
resolution  of  the  Convention  of  1844  on  the  part  of  the 
Foreign  Mission  Board.  "  The  PRINCIPLES  of  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention,"  the  document  continues,  "...  are 
conservative;  while  they  are  also,  as  we  trust,  equitable 
and  liberal.     They  purpose  to  do  the  Lord's  work  in  the 


452  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

way  our  fathers  did  it.  .  .  .  The  constitution  we  adopt  is 
precisely  that  of  the  orginal  union  ;  that  in  connection  with 
which,  throughout  his  missionary  Hfe,  Adoniram  Judson 
has  hved,  and  under  which  Ann  Judson  and  Boardman 
have  died.  We  recede  from  it  in  no  single  step.  We 
have  constructed  for  our  basis  no  new  creed,  acting  in  this 
matter  upon  a  Baptist  aversion  for  all  creeds  but  the 
Bible.  .  .  .  We  claim  to  have  acted  in  the  premises  with 
liberality  toward  our  Northern  brethren.  Thrust  from  the 
common  platform  of  equal  rights,  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  churches,  we  have  but  reconstructed  that 
platform.  .  .  .  Have  they  thrust  us  off?  We  retain  but 
one  feeling  in  the  case :  tJiat  ivc  will  not  practically  leave 
it  on  any  account,  much  less  in  obedience  to  such  usurped 
authority,  or  in  deference  to  such  a  manifest  breach  of 
trust  as  is  here  involved  ;  a  breach  of  covenant  that  looks 
various  ways — heavenward  and  earthward.  For  we  re- 
peat, THEY  WOULD  FORBID  US  TO  Spcak  unto  THE  GEN- 
TILES. .  .  .  '  One  thing  is  certain  ' — we  must  go  every- 
where preaching  the  word.  '  W' e  can  never  be  a  party 
to  any  arrangement '  for  monopolizing  the  gospel ;  any  ar- 
rangement which,  like  that  of  the  Autocratical  Interdict 
of  the  North,  would  first  drive  us  from  our  beloved  colored 
people,  of  whom  they  prove  that  they  know  nothing  com- 
paratively, and  from  the  much-wronged  aborigines  of  the 
country  ;  and  then  cut  us  off  from  the  whitening  fields  of 
the  heathen  harvest-labor,  to  which  by  cogent  appeals  and 
solemn  prayers  they  have  so  often  protested  that,  without 
us,  they  were  inadequate.  ...  In  parting  with  beloved 
brethren  and  old  coadjutors  in  this  cause,  we  could  weep, 
and  have  wept,  for  ourselves  and  for  them  ;  but  the  season, 
as  well  of  weeping  as  of  vain  jangling,  is,  we  are  constrained 
to  believe,  just  now  past.  For  years  the  pressure  of  men's 
hands  has  been  upon  us  far  too  heavily.     Our  brethren 


Chap,  iv.]   COOPERATION   IVITH  OTHER   SOCIETIES.         453 

have  pressed  upon  every  inch  of  our  privileges  and  our 
sacred  rights;  but  this  only  shall  urge  our  gushing  souls 
to  yield  proportionately  of  their  renewed  efforts  to  the 
Lord,  to  the  church  universal,  and  to  a  dying  world ;  even 
as  water  pressed  from  without  rises  but  the  more  within. 
Above  all,  the  mountain  pressure  of  our  obligations  to 
God,  even  our  own  God ;  to  Christ,  and  him  crucified ;  and 
to  the  personal  and  social  blessings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
his  influences,  shall  urge  our  little  streams  of  water  of  life 
to  flow  forth  ;  until  every  wilderness  and  desolate  place 
within  our  reach  (and  what  extent  of  the  w^orld's  wilder- 
ness, wisely  considered,  is  not  within  our  reach?)  'shall  be 
glad  ' — even  at  this  passing  calamity  of  division ;  and  the 
deserts  of  unconverted  human  nature  '  rejoice,  and  blossom 
as  the  rose.'  " 

The  next  Convention  was  appointed  to  be  held  in  Rich- 
mond, June  10,  1846.  At  the  appointed  time  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  delegates  assembled.  The  meeting  was 
a  most  solemn  and  decorous  one.  The  American  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  the  American  Baptist  Publication 
Society,  the  American  Sunday-school  Union,  and  the 
Kentucky  General  Association  sent  corresponding  mes- 
sengers and  expressed  a  willingness  to  cooperate  with  the 
Convention.  It  was  resolved  "  that  before  the  final  vote 
upon  questions  of  vital  importance  .  .  .  the  business  of 
the  Convention  shall  be  suspended,  and  prayer  off"ered  up 
to  Almighty  God  for  the  special  guidance  of  his  Spirit." 
The  Foreign  Board,  provisionally  appointed  the  year  be- 
fore, reported  receipts  during  the  year  of  about  $17,735 
and  a  balance  on  hand  of  about  $15,500.  The  Northern 
society  had  refused  to  assign  to  this  board  a  portion  of  the 
mission  work  that  had  been  jointly  undertaken,  preferring 
to  allow  the  missionaries  themselves  to  select  the  board 
under  which  they  would  labor.     J.  L.  Shuck,  a  missionary 


454  ^'^^^^  BAPTISl'S.  [Per.  hi. 

to  China,  was  present  at  the  Convention  and  was  under 
appointment  to  return  as  a  missionary  of  the  Southern 
board.  S.  C.  Clopton  and  George  Pearcy  were  under 
appointment  for  mission  work  in  China.  The  former  was 
solemnly  ordained  to  the  work  during  the  Convention. 
The  Foreign  Board  had  already  begun  the  publication  of 
"The  Southern  Missionary  Journal"  (afterward  named 
"The  Foreign  Mission  Journal").  J.  B.  Taylor  was 
appointed  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Foreign  Board. 
The  provisional  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  reported  re- 
ceipts of  $13,193  (including  unpaid  pledges).  Six  mis- 
sionaries had  been  employed,  but  only  a  beginning  had 
been  made.  A  proposal  by  the  board  to  plant  missions 
in  California  and  Mexico  was  stricken  from  the  report  on 
the  ground  that  such  proposal  "  might  be  construed  into  a 
political  meaning."  The  needs  of  the  colored  population 
of  the  South  were  duly  considered,  and  steps  were  taken 
looking  to  the  evangelization  of  Africa.  The  following 
resolution,  which  was  heartily  adopted,  indicates  the  atti- 
tude of  Southern  Baptists  in  1846  toward  the  African 
race :  "  Resolved,  That  in  view  of  the  present  condition  of 
the  African  race,  and  in  view  of  the  indications  of  Divine 
Providence  toward  that  portion  of  the  great  family  of  fallen 
men,  we  feel  that  a  solemn  obligation  rests  not  only  upon 
the  Convention,  but  upon  all  Christians,  to  furnish  them 
with  the  gospel  and  a  suitable  Christian  ministry."  It 
was  thought  that  missionaries  from  the  North  would  never 
be  able  to  endure  the  climate  of  Africa,  and  that  chief  re- 
liance must  be  placed  upon  colored  missionaries.  It  was 
the  opinion  of  the  committee  appointed  to  report  on  this 
matter  that  ten  such  might  be  at  once  provided  for.  It 
was  decided  to  cooperate  with  the  American  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  at  home  and  abroad. 

A  resume  of  the  work  of  the  Convention  in  home  and 


Chap,  iv.]  HOME  MISSION  BOARD.  455 

foreign  mission  and  Sunday-school  work  is  all  that  is  here 
practicable.  From  1846  to  i860  the  missionary  work  of 
the  Convention  was  carried  forward  with  marked  enthu- 
siasm and  success.  During  the  first  thirteen  years  of  the 
existence  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern 
Convention  the  Baptists  of  the  South  contributed  about 
seven  times  as  much  money  for  this  purpose  as  they  had 
contributed  through  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission 
Society  during  the  preceding  tliirteen  years.  Every  de- 
partment of  denominational  life  was  quickened  by  the  in- 
creased responsibility  felt  and  by  the  increased  confidence 
that  sprang  from  direct  control.  Heretofore  the  boards 
had  all  been  located  at  the  North  and  Conventions  were 
never  held  in  the  South.  Interest  was  intensified  by  the 
possession  of  boards  and  by  the  possibility  of  attending 
the  Conventions  in  larger  numbers.  Not  only  did  the  de- 
nomination greatly  increase  in  numbers  and  in  liberality 
under  the  new  arrangement,  but  the  antinomian  and  anti- 
missionary  spirit  that  was  rife  throughout  the  South 
speedily  gave  place  to  the  triumphant  missionary  spirit. 

The  Home  Mission  Board  was  located  at  Marion,  Ala., 
till  1882,  when  it  was  transferred  to  Atlanta,  Ga.  The 
prosperity  of  the  home  mission  cause  to  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  was  remarkable.  Up  to  1861  the  board  had  "  sent 
forth  750  missionaries,  added  15,000  members  to  the 
churches,  built  about  200  houses  of  worship,  constituted 
200  new  churches,  and  had  collected  and  disbursed  about 
$300,000."  During  the  Civil  War  the  work  of  the  board 
was  chiefly  in  the  armies,  where  its  numerous  missionaries 
did  a  noble  and  fruitful  work.  A  period  of  depression  and 
discouragement  followed  the  war.  Not  only  was  the  coun- 
try impoverished  and  disorganized,  but  the  affairs  of  the 
board  seem  to  have  been  ill  managed.  It  became  involved 
in  debt,  and  no  enthusiasm  could  be  aroused  in  the  churches. 


456  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

Receipts  fell  short  of  $20,000  a  year,  and  much  of  this  was 
required  for  interest  and  expenses.  Most  of  the  money 
raised  just  after  the  war  came  from  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
and  Maryland,  where  losses  in  consequence  of  the  war  had 
been  comparatively  slight.  The  number  of  missionaries 
employed  in  1881-82  was  only  36,  and  only  333  additions 
by  baptism  were  reported.  With  the  reorganization  of  the 
board  and  its  transference  to  Atlanta  a  period  of  prosperity 
was  inaugurated.  The  number  of  missionaries  employed 
ro.se  in  1883  to  95,  in  1884  to  144,  in  1885  to  187,  in  1886 
to  255,  in  1888  to  287,  in  1889  to  324,  in  1891  to  406.  A 
.slight  retrenchment  was  found  to  be  necessary  in  the  suc- 
ceeding years,  and  the  number  employed  in  1894  was  only 
381.  This  work  has  been  distributed  throughout  the 
Southern  States,  Indian  Territor}-,  Oklahoma,  and  Cuba. 
In  the  older  States  most  of  the  home  mission  work  is 
accomplished  by  the  agency  of  the  State  Conventions. 
Texas  has  (in  1894)  tlie  largest  number  of  missionaries, 
namely,  105  ;  Florida  has  51,  West  Arkansas  and  Indian 
Territory,  54,  Kentucky,  24,  Arkansas,  21,  Mississippi,  22, 
Oklahoma,  12,  while  the  rest  of  the  States  have  from  i  to 
10  each.  A  large  amount  of  work  is  done  in  cooperation 
with  the  State  Conventions. 

The  work  accomplished  by  the  board  among  the  Indians 
of  the  Indian  Territory  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  modern  missions.  Ac- 
cording to  a  recent  report  of  the  board,  "  the  membership 
among  them,  in  proportion  to  population,  is  now  equal  to 
that  of  our  strongest  Baptist  States.  They  have  been  re- 
claimed from  barbarism.  They  support  a  well- organized 
government.  They  have  opened  farms,  builded  houses, 
established  schools,  and  are  prepared,  if  they  so  desired, 
to  enter  this  great  federation  of  States  as  a  constituent 
member."     There    are   now    in   the    Indian   Territory    16 


Chap,  iv.]  THE    CUBAN  MISSION.  45  7 

Associations,  301  churches,  and  13,844  members.  The 
work  accomplished  in  Texas  lias  been,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  board,  still  more  remarkable.  Work  was  begun  when 
Texas  had  only  a  small,  scattered,  and  spiritually  neglected 
population.  To-day  it  is  one  of  the  strongest  of  Baptist 
States.  The  history  of  the  Cuban  mission  is  full  of  ro- 
mantic interest.  The  mission  had  its  origin  in  the  conver- 
sion of  Alberto  J.  Diaz,  a  cajotain  in  the  rebel  army  during 
the  last  Cuban  rebellion,  whom  the  exigencies  of  war  had 
driven  to  sea  in  a  small  craft,  who  was  rescued  by  a  pass- 
ing vessel  when  in  imminent  clanger,  who  made  his  way  to 
New  York,  entered  upon  a  course  of  medical  study,  and 
while  dangerously  ill  in  a  hospital  was  brought,  through 
the  kindly  ministrations  of  a  Baptist  lady  and  the  reading 
of  a  Spanish  New  Testament,  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
He  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Willoughby 
Avenue  Church,  Brooklyn,  and,  led  by  an  irresistible  in- 
fluence, he  soon  afterward  returned  to  Cuba  to  proclaim  to 
his  benighted  fellow-countrymen  the  gospel  of  salvation. 
Repudiated  by  kindred  and  friends,  he  began  to  hold 
evangelistic  meetings,  supporting  himself  by  the  practice 
of  medicine.  A  number  of  converts  were  soon  gained. 
The  priests  became  alarmed  and  "  boycotted  "  his  medical 
practice.  Having  secured  an  appointment  as  colporteur 
under  a  Philadelphia  Bible  society,  he  continued  his  work. 
In  true  apostolic  fashion  he  endured  persecution.  Im- 
prisonment, mob  violence,  and  attempted  assassination  at 
the  hands  of  a  priest  were  his  portion.  Yet  he  went 
steadily  forward,  his  eloquent  and  zealous  proclamation  of 
the  truth  attracting  multitudes  of  hearers  and  gaining' 
many  converts.  The  conversion  of  a  Cuban  at  Key 
West,  Fla.,  where  a  Baptist  missionary  was  laboring,  led 
to  the  establishment  of  a  special  mission  for  the  Cubans 
residing  there  and  furnished  the  connecting-link  between 


458  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pek.  hi. 

the  Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Conven- 
tion and  the  Cuban  mission  inaugurated  by  Diaz.  The 
greatest  enthusiasm  was  aroused  among  Southern  Bap- 
tists. Influential  deputations  visited  Cuba  and  became 
convinced  that  Diaz  had  in  him  all  the  elements  of  a 
master  missionary,  and  that  Providence  had  through  him 
opened  a  door  for  the  gospel  that  must  be  entered.  The 
greatest  difficulty  had  been  experienced  by  Diaz  in  secur- 
ing a  suitable  place  for  religious  services.  Multitudes 
were  eager  to  hear  the  proclamation  of  the  truth,  and  a 
large  building  could  at  once  be  filled.  With  funds  raised 
through  the  Home  Mission  Board  a  fine  theater  building 
was  purchased  in  Havana  at  a  cost  of  $75,000.  Since  that 
time  the  work  has  been  carried  forward  with  unabated  zeal 
and  success.  To  the  evangelizing  agencies  of  the  mission 
belong  a  girls'  school  and  a  hospital  for  women  and  chil- 
dren. The  statistics  for  1894  are:  24  missionaries  em- 
ployed (all  but  one  native  Cubans),  150  baptized,  and  a 
total  membership  of  2582. 

The  board  has  sustained  successful  missions  among  the 
Germans  of  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  Texas,  and 
among  the  French  of  Missouri  and  Louisiana.  The  obliga- 
tion to  put  forth  earnest  efi"ort  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
millions  of  colored  people  in  the  South  has  from  the  first 
been  recognized,  but  since  1865  far  less  attention  has  been 
given  to  this  important  department  of  work  than  might 
reasonably  have  been  expected.  This  may  be  due,  in 
part,  to  the  fact  that  the  Northern  Baptists  are  doing  a 
very  extensive  work  among  these  people.  The  work  un- 
dertaken by  the  board  has  been  chiefly  in  the  line  of  hold- 
ing institutes  for  the  instruction  of  colored  preachers. 
Still  more  has  been  accomplished  by  the  Home  Mission 
Boards  of  the  State  Conventions. 

The  mountain  reoions  of  the   South  furnish  an  almo.st 


Chap,  iv.]  MOUXTAIX   WORK.  459 

unlimited  field  for  the  activity  of  the  board.  It  covers 
extensive  portions  of  West  Virginia,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and 
Alabama,  with  a  population  of  3,000,000,  a  majority  of 
whom  are  under  Baptist  influence.  These  regions  are  the 
stronghold  of  the  anti- missionary  spirit.  The  people  are 
for  the  most  part  illiterate,  and  strongly  prejudiced  against 
modern  evangelical  methods.  In  the  opinion  of  the  board 
"  there  are  no  people  whose  wants  are  more  pressing, 
whose  condition  demands  more  of  thought  to  devise 
plans  to  meet  their  necessities,  or  more  of  wisdom  in  their 
application.  There  are  no  people  whose  future,  when  they 
shall  be  properl)-  developed,  promises  so  much  of  useful- 
ness to  the  world."  The  most  effective  method  of  reaching 
this  vast  population  with  evangelical  influence  is  thought 
to  be  the  establishment  of  denominational  schools.  Eight 
Baptist  high  schools  have  been  established  in  North 
Georgia  under  the  fostering  care  of  the  board,  five  in 
western  North  Carolina,  and  one  in  Kentuck}'.  It  is  the 
intention  of  the  board  to  go  forward  along  this  line  till  all 
these  vast  regions  shall  have  been  supplied  with  Christian 
educational  facilities. 

Special  attention  is  being  given  by  the  board  to  the 
evangelizing  of  the  cities,  a  work  greatly  neglected  by 
Southern  Baptists  in  earlier  times. 

Since  the  formation  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
the  Baptist  membership  of  the  territory  covered  has  in- 
creased from  about  450,000,  of  whom  200,000  were  col- 
ored, to  2,654,397,  of  whom  1,291,046  are  colored.'  It  is 
estimated  that  at  least  2250  churches  have  been  consti- 
tuted through  the  agency  of  the  board,  and  that  at  least 

1  These  figures  for  1893  are  considerably  less  than  those  of  the  United 
States  census  of  i8go  (see  vol.  i.  of  the  present  series,  pp.  27,  30,  36,  38, 
40,  43,  44,  48,  52,  53).  On  the  basis  of  the  census  figures  the  present  num- 
ber of  Southern  Baptists  would  exceed  3,000,000. 


460  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

200,000  ha\'e  been  converted  and  baptized  in  connection 
with  its  eff(_)rts.  The  board  has  aided  in  erecting  nearl}' 
1000  houses  of  worship.  The  receipts  of  the  board  for 
the  year  ending  May,  1893,  amounted  to  $106,989.58,  of 
whicli  $36,040.69  were  special.  Cooperative  bodies  re- 
ported for  the  same  period  $134,130.35.  Since  1888  the 
board  has  issued  a  monthly  journal  entitled  "  Our  Home 
Field."  To  Dr.  I.  T.  Tichenor,  corresponding"  secretary  of 
the  board  since  1882,  is  diie  much  of  the  credit  for  the 
enlargement  of  its  work. 

Equally  aggressi\-e  and  progressive  has  been  the  work 
of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board.  China  and  Africa  were  the 
first  countries  to  which  attention  was  directed.  Two  of 
tlie  missionaries  of  the  Triennial  Convention,  J.  L.  Shuck 
and  T.  J.  Roberts,  transferred  their  services  to  the  South- 
ern board  soon  after  its  organization.  The  Canton  mission 
was  strengthened  by  several  new  appointments  (1846  on- 
ward). In  1847  the  Shanghai  mission  was  opened,  with 
M.  T.  Yates,  J.  L.  Shuck,  and  T.  W.  Tobey  as  missionaries. 
The  Shantung  and  Tung-Chow  missions  were  inaugurated 
in  i860  under  the  direction  of  J.  L.  Holmes  and  J.  B. 
Hartwell.  In  Africa  missions  were  opened  in  Liberia 
from  1846  onward.  In  i860  there  were  in  this  region  24 
.'Stations  and  churches,  18  pastors,  and  1258  members. 
The  Yoruba  mission  dates  from  1850.  The  Italian  mis- 
sion w^as  organized  in  1870  and  has  had  a  successful  his- 
tory. The  chief  missionaries  have  been  W.  N.  Cote,  G.  B. 
Taylor,  and  J.  H.  Eager.  Brazil  was  occupied  in  1879 
and  Mexico  in  1880.  The  last  named  is  in  some  respects 
the  most  interesting  and  hopeful  field  cultivated  by  the 
board.  Japan  was  entered  in  1889.  The  present  work 
of  the  board  is  as  follows :  In  the  Chinese  missions  work 
is  carried  forward  at  9  main  stations  and  48  out-stations 
by  15  male  and  21  female  missionaries  (including  wives  of 


Chap,  iv.]  FOREIGN  MISSIOX   WORK.  46 1 

missionaries);  13  churches  have  been  organized  and  have 
a  membership  of  1243.  The  condition  of  these  missions 
is  regarded  as  hopeful.  In  Africa  the  board  sustains  4 
main  stations  and  4  out-stations,  worked  by  4  male  mis- 
sionaries and  5  female  (including  missionaries',  wives). 
There  are  5  churches,  with  a  membership  of  166.  This 
has  been  one  of  the  most  discouraging  fields  cultivated  by 
the  board.  As  in  most  African  missions,  the  loss  of  life 
has  been  appalling.  The  Italian  mission  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting.  It  has  15  main  stations  and  54  out- 
stations,  2  male  missionaries  and  i  female,  17  churches, 
and  372  members.  In  Brazil  11  main  stations  and  21 
out-stations  are  cultivated  by  9  male  and  6  female  mis- 
sionaries. The  converts  have  been  gathered  in  1 1  churches, 
with  a  membership  of  519.  In  Mexico  the  board  has  9 
main  stations  and  30  out-stations,  directed  by  10  male  and 
15  female  missionaries;  37  churches  have  been  organized 
and  have  a  membership  of  1163.  The  Japanese  mission 
has  2  main  stations  and  4  out-stations,  worked  by  2  mis- 
sionaries and  their  wives.  A  church  has  been  organized 
with  a  membership  of  31.  For  the  year  ending  May, 
1893,  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  received  $154,686.28,  of 
which  $20,110  were  given  as  a  special  Centennial  Fund. 
The  corresponding  secretaries  of  the  board  have  been  men 
of  high  character  and  admirable  devotion  to  the  work. 
J.  B.  Taylor  served  from  1846  until  his  death,  in  1872, 
and  was  succeeded  by  H.  A.  Tupper,  who  served  with 
great  efficiency  until  1893,  and  wrote  an  excellent  history 
of  the  foreign  mission  work  of  the  Convention.  The  pres- 
ent secretary  is  R.  J.  Willingham,  who  has  entered  upon 
his  work  with  marked  enthusiasm,  and  who  is  possessed  of 
organizing  ability  and  capacity  for  work*  in  a  very  high 
measure. 

In    1 89 1    the   Convention   appointed    a   Sunday-school 


462  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  111. 

Board,  whose  chief  function  is  to  supply  periodicals,  song- 
books.  Bibles,  Testaments,  cards,  maps,  and  other  requisites 
for  Sunday-schools.  The  board  has  its  headquarters  at 
Nashville.  T.  P.  Bell  is  its  efficient  corresponding  secre- 
tary and  treasurer.  It  publishes  "  The  Teacher,"  lesson 
quarterlies  of  various  grades,  lesson  leaflets,  children's  illus- 
trated papers,  and  "  The  Young  People's  Leader."  Its  re- 
ceipts for  the  year  ending  May,  1894,  were  $48,539.16. 

The  Southern  Baptist  Convention  has  always  been  par- 
ticularly happy  in  its  choice  of  presiding  officers.  While 
other  bodies  have  passed  the  office  around  in  a  compli- 
mentary v/ay,  without  much  regard  to  presiding  ability, 
this  body  has  been  presided  over  by  a  succession  of  the 
ablest  parliamentarians  that  the  denomination  has  pos- 
sessed, and  has  established  the  habit  of  continuing"  through 
a  series  of  years  presidents  who  ha\-e  shown  special  fitness 
for  the  office.  The  first  president  was  the  \-enerable 
\\  illiam  B.  Johnson,  of  South  Carolina,  who  had  presided 
over  the  Triennial  Convention.  He  was  succeeded  in  185  i 
by  R.  B.  C.  Howell.  Richard  Fuller  held  the  position 
from  1859  to  1863,  P.  H.  Mell  from  1863  to  1872  and 
again  from  1881  to  1887,  J.  P.  Boyce  from  1872  to  1880 
and  in  1888,  and  Jonathan  Haralson,  a  high  judicial  officer, 
from  1889  to  the  present. 

The  triennial  meetings  gave  place  after  1849  to  biennial. 
Since  1866  annual  meetings  ha\'e  been  held.  It  is  proba- 
ble that  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  is  surpassed  in 
the  ability  and  eloquence  of  its  members  and  in  the  dignity 
of  its  proceedings  by  no  similar  body  of  any  denomination. 
Unfortunately,  the  grace  of  giving  has  not  been  developed 
to  a  satisfactory  extent  in  the  churches  of  the  Convention. 
Pronounced  opposition  to  benevolent  institutions  is  now 
almost  confined  to  the  mountain  regions,  but  the  propor- 
tion of  those  who  actively  aid  in  carrying  forward  the  en- 


CiiAi'.  IV.]  "  OMISSIOXAKV    BAPTISTS.  463 

terprises  of  the  denomination  is  far  smaller  than  among 
Baptists  of  other  parts  of  the  continent.  Referring  with 
gratitude  to  the  growth  of  the  denomination,  in  the  terri- 
tory covered  by  the  Convention,  from  450,000  in  1845  to 
2,500,000  in  1894,  the  secretary  of  the  Home  Board  writes  : 
"  And  yet  our  rejoicings  are  beclouded  by  the  painful  fact 
that  the  spirit  of  missions  has  made  so  little  progress  in 
our  churches.  It  is  estimated  that  of  the  one  million  and 
a  half  of  our  [white]  church-members  not  more  than  one 
third  .  .  .  ever  give  anything  to  mission  work.  We  are 
nurturing  in  our  churches  a  million  baptized  believers  who 
ignore  alike  the  purpose  for  which  our  God  sent  his  Son 
into  the  world,  the  great  command  of  our  Saviour,  and 
the  needs  of  a  race  perishing  in  its  guilt.  ...  In  one  of 
our  large  city  churches,  where  especial  pains  have  been 
taken  to  secure  contributions  from  every  member,  the 
contributors  reach  about  one  fifth  of  the  membership.  In 
another,  where  a  liberal  contribution  was  taken  for  one  of 
our  mission  boards,  the  number  contributing  was  confined 
to  less  than  a  hundred  out  of  a  membership  of  more  than 
a  thousand."  It  is  evident  that  the  poverty  of  the  South 
is  not  a  sufficient  explanation  of  this  widespread  indiffer- 
ence to  missionary  enterprise. 

The  support  of  pastors  throughout  the  territory  of  the 
Convention  is  far  less  generous  than  it  should  be.  Out- 
side of  the  towns  and  cities  few  churches  enjoy  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  weekly  ministry.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
churches  are  content  with  monthly  services,  and  man}^ 
pastors  are  obliged  to  supplement  the  pittance  that  they 
receive  from  four  churches  by  school-teaching  or  farming. 
This  state  of  things  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
earlier  time  a  large  proportion  of  the  pastors  were  unedu- 
cated men,  who  were  content  to  follow  their  secular  avoca- 
tions during  the  week  and  to  preach  without  remuneration 


464  ^'^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

on  Sundays.  The  general  indifference  to  missions  may  be 
due  to  the  same  cause.  Accustomed  to  see  Christian  work 
carried  on  without  expense,  it  is  difficult  for  members  of 
such  churches  to  understand  that  money  is  really  needed 
for  the  world's  evangelization ;  and  they  are  likely  to  sus- 
pect that  moneys  collected  are  extravagantly  used.  But 
there  has  been  of  late  years  a  notable  improvement  in 
pastoral  support  and  in  contributions  to  missionary  and 
educational  objects. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  a  colored  Baptist  member- 
ship about  equal  to  that  of  the  white  churches  covers  the 
territory  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  Before 
emancipation  the  great  mass  of  the  colored  Baptist  mem- 
bership was  gathered  in  the  white  churches.  Their  spirit- 
ual needs  were  thus  well  cared  for,  and  the  Christian  own- 
ers of  sla\es  showed  in  many  cases  a  most  commendable 
interest  in  their  moral  and  religious  welfare.  Special  pews 
in  the  rear  of  the  churches  or  in  the  galleries  were  set  aside 
for  their  use.  In  many  of  the  cities  large  colored  churches 
were  gathered  from  an  early  date.  President  Ryland,  of 
Richmond  College,  ministered  for  years  to  a  large  colored 
Baptist  church.  Many  of  the  ablest  ministers  held  special 
services  for  the  colored  people  of  the  communities  in  which 
they  lived.  It  was  natural  that  with  emancipation  the 
colored  people  should  have  desired  to  enjo}-  complete  in- 
dependence in  religious  matters  and  should  ha\  e  withdrawn 
from  the  churches  in  which  they  could  not  expect  to  be 
treated  as  equals.  Being  ignorant  themseh-es,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  colored  churches  could  not  be  expected  to  be 
fastidious  about  the  qualit}^  of  the  preaching  to  which  they 
listened,  and  as  no  educated  ministers  of  their  own  race 
were  available  they  had  to  be  content  with  the  services  of 
the  uneducated.  Much  has  been  done  by  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  in  educating  preachers  and 


Chap,  iv.]  THE    COLORED   BAPTISTS.  465 

teachers,  and  education  is  gradually  affecting  the  masses 
of  the  colored  population ;  but  the  work  is  too  vast  to  be 
accomplished  in  a  day,  and  immense  areas  of  darkness  and 
destitution  remain  to  be  overcome.  It  is  doubtful  whether, 
with  all  the  effort  that  has  been  put  forth,  the  spiritual  needs 
of  the  colored  people  are  as  well  cared  for  as  they  were 
before  emancipation  ;  but  the  separation  and  the  independ- 
ent development  of  the  colored  churches  were  an  inevitable 
stage  in  the  working  out  of  the  destiny  of  the  race,  and  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  the  agencies  now  at  work,  multiplied 
by  the  increased  liberality  of  the  denomination  North 
and  South,  will  in  time  provide  this  great  portion  of  our 
denomination  with  educated  teachers  and  preachers  and 
elevate  the  masses  of  the  colored  population  to  a  higher 
plane  of  intelligence  and  morality.  The  colored  Baptists 
have  shown  themselves  highly  responsive  to  the  efforts 
that  have  been  put  forth  on  their  behalf.  Besides  their 
State  Conventions  the  colored  Baptists  have  a  number  of 
societies  which  aim  to  be  national  in  their  character,  but 
which  are  not  very  vigorously  sustained.  The  Baptist 
Foreign  Missionary  Convention  of  the  United  States  was 
organized  in  1880.  It  supports  a  few  missionaries  in 
Africa  and  sustains  helpful  relations  to  the  colored  Baptists 
of  the  Bahamas.  The  receipts  of  the  Convention  for  the 
year  ending  September,  1893,  were  $5590.  For  other 
societies  and  full  statistics  the  reader  is  referred  to  vol.  i. 
of  the  present  series,  pp.  27-30.  The  missionary  and  ed- 
ucational work  that  is  being  carried  on  by  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  will  be  treated  in  another 
chapter. 

The  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary  (opened  at 
Greenville,  S.  C,  in  1859,  removed  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  in 
1877)  is  intimately  but  not  organically  related  to  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention.      The  need  for  such  an  In- 


466  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

stitution  was  felt  and  the  matter  was  discussed  in  1845, 
when  the  Convention  was  organized.  The  fact  that  sev- 
eral of  the  colleges  of  the  South  provided  a  certain  amount 
of  instruction  in  theological  subjects  and  were  anxious 
to  expand  their  theological  work  no  doubt  embarrassed 
the  situation  to  some  extent.  In  1856  James  P.  Boyce,  a 
graciuate  of  Brown  University  and  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary,  and  at  that  time  professor  in  the  theological 
department  of  Furman  University,  delivered  an  inaugural 
address  entitled  "  Three  Changes  in  Theological  Institu- 
tions." He  urged  that  complete  provision  should  be  made 
for  the  training  of  men  who  had  not  the  advantages  of  a 
course  in  arts;  that  the  amplest  provision  should  be  made 
for  the  most  extensive  and  thorough  training  of  those  pre- 
pared to  receive  it;  and  that  a  doctrinal  test  should  be  in- 
stituted for  theological  instructors.  At  an  educational 
convention  held  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  1857,  Professor 
Boyce  submitted  a  proposal  on  behalf  of  the  State  Con- 
vention of  South  Carolina  to  the  efifect  that  the  Baptists 
of  South  Carolina  would  contribute  $100,000  toward  the 
establishment  of  a  theological  seminary  at  Greenville,  S.  C, 
provided  the  Baptists  of  the  other  States  of  the  South- 
ern Baptist  Convention  would  contribute  a  like  amount. 
These  conditions  were  soon  fulfilled  so  far  as  subscriptions 
were  concerned,  and  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary  was  opened  in  October,  1859,  with  a  faculty 
composed  of  James  P.  Boyce,  John  A.  Broadus,  Basil 
Manly,  Jr.,  and  William  Williams.  Of  the  wisdom  of  the 
choice  of  instructors  the  history  of  the  seminary  has  given 
abundant  proof.  The  war  of  secession  swept  away  the 
subscribed  endowments,  but  at  the  close  of  the  war  the 
institution  was  reopened.  The  history  of  the  next  twelve 
years  was  that  of  noble  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the 
professors  and  of  good  work  performed  under  great  diflfi- 


CiiAi'.  IV.]  THEOLOGICAL    SEMLXARY.  A.6'] 

culties.  The  removal  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  was  a  result  of 
efforts  to  secure  an  endowment.  The  Baptists  of  Ken- 
tucky were  prepared  to  do  what  impoverished  South 
Carolina  could  no  longer  do.  Heroic  work  on  the  part  of 
Dr.  Boyce  and  his  coadjutors  has  resulted  in  an  ample 
endowment,  and  splendid  equipment  in  library  and  build- 
ings. The  constituency  of  the  Seminary  embraces  nearly 
two  thirds  of  the  white  Baptists  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  number  of  students  is  far  larger  than  that  of  any  other 
Baptist  institution  of  the  kind.  The  Seminary  has  8  in- 
structors, 260  students,  and  assets  valued  at  $775,000. 


CHAPTER   V. 

NORTHERN,  NATIONAL,  AND  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIETIES, 
AND    EDUCATIONAL    INSTITUTIONS  (1845-94).^ 

The  secession  of  the  Southern  churches  to  form  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  brought  on  a  crisis  in  the 
Home  and  Foreign  Mission  Boards.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  Foreign  Mission  Board  in  May,  1845,  it  was  found 
that  by  reason  of  the  dissatisfaction  that  existed  at  the 
South  the  receipts  had  fallen  so  far  short  of  the  estimates 
and  expenditures  as  to  cause  a  most  embarrassing  deficit 
of  $40,000.  The  receipts  during  the  year  had  really  been 
in  excess  of  those  of  the  preceding  year,  but  expenditures 
had  been  greatly  increased,  and  increased  contributions 
had  been  counted  on.  To  meet  the  emergency,  and  to 
reorganize  the  foreign  mission  work  in  view  of  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Southern  brethren,  a  special  meeting  of  the 
General  Convention  was  held  in  New  York  in  November, 
1845.  The  enthusiasm  of  tlie  meeting,  which  the  increased 
responsibilities  and  a  determination  not  to  allow  the  work 
undertaken  to  languish  would  naturally  ha\'e  produced, 
was  greatly  heightened  by  the  presence  of  Adoniram 
Judson,  the  veteran  missionary,  who,  after  thirty-three 
years   of  heroic    service   and    suffering,   had    returned   to 

1  See  Am.  Bapt.  Year-books ;  reports  of  the  various  societies ;  Smith, 
"  Miss.  Sk."  ;  "  Bapt.  Miss.  Mag."  ;  "  Bapt.  Home  Miss,  in  N.  A."  ;  "  Bapt. 
and  the  Nat.  Cent."  ;  "  Proceedings  Nat.  Bapt  Ed.  Conv.,"  1870  and  1872; 
"  Bapt.  Mem.,"  1845  .wq.  ;  and  Cathcart,  "  Bapt.  Encyc." 

468 


CiiAi'.  \.]  MISSWXAKY    L'XIOX.  469 

America  for  a  short  period  of  rest.  There  were  present 
two  hundred  and  seventy- five  delegates,  all  of  the  New 
England  and  Middle  States  being  represented,  and  Mary- 
land, the  District  of  Columbia,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana  hav- 
ing one  delegate  each.  A  new  constitution  was  adopted, 
the  first  article  of  which  gave  to  the  society  the  name 
"The  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union."  Life-mem- 
bers were  to  consist  of  all  members  present  at  the  adoption 
of  the  constitution  and  of  such  others  as  should  pay  at  one 
time  not  less  than  $100.  Missions  were  made  the  exclu- 
sive object  of  the  union.  Propositions  to  exclude  slave- 
holders from  life-membership  and  other  privileges  of  the 
union  were  promptly  negatived.  The  deficit  of  $40,000 
had  been  reduced  to  $10,000.  This  sum  was  raised,  and 
$2200  more,  at  the  Convention.  Com.mittees  were  ap- 
pointed to  secure  necessary  legislation,  and  it  was  deter- 
mined that  a  final  meeting  of  the  General  Convention 
should  be  held  in  Brooklyn  in  May,  1846,  to  receive  the 
reports  of  the  committees  and  to  prepare  for  the  meeting 
of  the  union  immediately  thereafter. 

At  the  meeting  in  May,  1846,  the  treasurer  reported 
receipts  amounting  to  $100,219.94.  The  missions  of  the 
Convention  had  been  v/ell  maintained  during  the  year,  and 
604  baptisms  were  reported. 

The  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  held  its  first 
annual  meeting  immediately  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
General  Convention.  Daniel  Sharp  was  chosen  president 
and  Solomon  Peck  corresponding  secretary  of  the  board. 
Boston  continued  to  be  the  headquarters  of  the  recon- 
structed board.  The  history  of  the  union  for  nearly  fifty 
years  has  been  one  of  enthusiastic  devotion  to  missions  on 
the  part  of  its  constituency,  wise  and  aggressive  manage- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  board  and  its  secretaries,  and  noble 
self-sacrifice  and  achievement  on  the  part  of  its  missionaries. 


470  THE   BAPTISTS.  [I'kr.  hi. 

In  no  year  have  the  receipts  of  the  union  fallen  as  low  as 
those  of  the  General  Convention  before  the  secession  of  the 
Southern  brethren,  and  they  have  almost  steadily  risen, 
until  in  1893  they  reached  the  magnificent  sum  of  $766,- 
782.95.  The  union  has  invested  funds  amounting  to 
nearly  $700,000  and  mission  property  of  great  value. 

A  summary  of  the  present  operations  of  the  union  is  all 
that  can  here  be  attempted.  The  Baptist  cause  in  Sweden, 
fostered  by  the  union,  has  been  greatly  prospered.  It  is 
represented  by  647  preachers,  550  churches,  and  36,254 
members.  During  the  year  ending  April,  1894,  there 
were  reported  1847  baptisms,  and  contributions  for  the 
support  of  the  gospel  amounting  to  $112,328.  The 
Swedish  Baptists  have  a  theological  seminary  with  an 
attendance  of  forty-two  students,  and  are  an  aggressive 
body.  The  mission  was  opened  in  1855.  The  union  still 
supports  missionaries  in  Sweden  at  an  expense  of  $8626. 
The  work  of  the  union  (and  its  predecessor)  in  France 
dates  from  1832  and  is  still  being  vigorously  pressed. 
There  are  at  present  in  connection  with  this  mission  19 
churches,  30  preachers,  and  1900  members.  The  society 
expended  on  this  field  during  the  last  year  reported  $27,- 
509,  and  the  native  churches  raised  for  the  support  of  the 
work  $3278.  The  German  mission  dates  from  1834  and 
is  now  repre.ented  by  139  churches,  277  preachers,  and 
27,332  members,  of  whom  2596  were  baptized  during  the 
last  year  reported.  This  mission  is  still  aided  to  the  ex- 
tent of  $9940.  The  German  Baptists  have  a  theological 
seminary  at  Hamburg,  with  23  students.  The  field  of  this 
mission  extends  to  Austria,  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Galicia, 
Bulgaria,  Roumania,  and  Switzerland.  The  apostolic  la- 
bors and  sufferings  of  J.  G.  Oncken,  baptized  by  Barnas 
Sears  in  the  Elbe  in  1834,  and  for  more  than  forty  years 
the  chief  leader  in  Baptist  work  among  the  German-speak^ 


CiiAr.  v.]  FOREIGX  MISSIONS.  47 1 

ing  populations  of  Europe,  form  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing chapters  in  the  history  of  modern  missions.  The  work 
in  Sweden,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Russia  is  largely  an 
outgrowth  of  the  missionary  activity  put  forth  under  the 
direction  of  Oncken  and  supported  to  a  considerable  extent 
by  the  funds  of  the  union.  In  Russia  there  are  in  con- 
nection with  the  mission  aided  by  the  union  21  churches, 
90  preachers,  and  3985  members.  The  terrible  persecu- 
tions to  which  Russian  Baptists  have  been  subjected  are 
well  known.  To  this  mission  the  union  contributed  dur- 
ing the  last  year  reported  $2700.  An  extensive  work  has 
been  accomplished  in  Denmark  with  some  help  from  the 
union.  There  are  now  reported  25  churches,  70  preach- 
ers, and  3165  members.  The  appropriation  of  the  union 
for  the  year  was  $1500.  In  the  Norway  mission  there  are 
reported  27  churches,  16  preachers,  and  1961  members. 
The  appropriation  of  the  union  was  $1600.  In  Spain  3 
small  churches  have  been  constituted,  with  a  membership 
of  100.  The  union  supports  this  work  at  an  expense  of 
$2 1 32.  Work  has  extended  to  Finland,  where  2  i  churches 
have  been  constituted,  with  10  preachers  and  1329  mem- 
bers. Something  has  been  attempted  in  Greece,  but  the 
results  have  not  been  gratifying. 

The  Burmese  mission  planted  by  Judson  and  Boardman 
has  been  one  of  the  most  successful.  There  are  now  on 
this  field  25  main  stations,  665  out-stations,  148  mission- 
aries (including  47  wives  of  missionaries),  601  native 
preachers,  600  churches,  of  which  360  are  self-supporting, 
and  33,337  members.  The  Rangoon  Baptist  College  is  a 
well-equipped  literary  and  theological  school  with  an  at- 
tendance of  225.  The  contributions  of  the  churches  during 
the  last  year  reported,  for  churches,  schools,  and  general 
benevolence,  amounted  to  $5  1,999.71,  while  the  appropria- 
tions of  the  union  for  work  on  the  Burmese  field  for  the 


472  THE  BAPTISTS.  [!'i;k.  hi. 

same  time  amounted  to  $179,257.43.  The  most  .•success- 
ful department  of  the  work  has  been  that  among  the 
Karens. 

The  Assam  mission  (i  841)  is  directed  by  40  missionaries 
(of  whom  18  are  missionaries'  wives)  and  has  31  native 
preachers,  32  churches  (of  which  17  are  seH'-supporting), 
and  a  membership  of  3469.  The  appropriations  to  this 
field  for  the  year  amounted  to  $42,057. 

The  Telugu  mission  in  India  (1840)  is  in  some  respects 
the  most  successful  of  the  missions  of  the  union.  The 
great  ingatherings  through  the  labors  of  J.  E.  Clough  and 
his  associates  are  among  the  marvels  of  modern  missions. 
The  missionaries  on  the  field  number  88  (of  whom  31  are 
wives  of  missionaries).  There  are  250  native  preachers,  76 
churches  (of  which  only  2  are  self-supporting),  and  54,968 
members.  The  converts  are  drawn  from  the  lowest  grades 
of  the  population  and  are  for  the  most  part  extremely  poor ; 
hence  the  slight  progress  in  the  direction  of  self-support  as 
compared  with  that  of  Burmah  and  Assam,  where  a  better 
class  of  people  are  reached.  A  theological  seminary  at 
Ramapatam  has  been  training  preachers  for  the  field  since 
1874,  and  a  college  has  just  been  estabUshed  at  Ongole. 
Both  are  partially  endowed.  The  appropriations  for  the 
last  year  reported  amounted  to  $1 16,468. 

The  Chinese  mission  (1833)  is  one  of  the  oldest  missions 
of  the  union,  and  although  it  has  enjoyed  the  prolonged 
services  of  some  of  the  ablest  missionaries  of  the  age, 
among  whom  William  Dean  and  William  Ashmore  may 
be  specially  mentioned,  progress  has  not  been  commensu- 
rate with  effort.  Eleven  main  stations  and  67  out-stations 
are  cultivated  by  80  missionaries  (of  whom  26  are  mission- 
aries' wives)  and  by  50  native  preachers.  There  are  20 
churches  (of  which  3  are  self-supporting)  and  1553  mem- 
bers.     The  appropriations  for  the  year  were  $75,427.96. 


Chap,  v.]  HOME   MISSIOXS.  473 

The  Japanese  mission  (1872)  has  8  main  stations  and  70 
out-stations,  and  its  work  is  directed  by  50  missionaries  (of 
whom  16  are  missionaries'  wives).  It  has  39  native  preach- 
ers and  19  churches,  with  a  membership  of  1665.  Two 
of  the  churches  are  self-supporting. 

The  African  mission  ([878)  embraces  10  main  stations 
and  16  out-stations  and  is  served  by  50  missionaries  (of 
whom  1 5  are  wives  of  missionaries) ;  1 2 1  7  members  are 
gathered  in  14  churches. 

The  total  number  of  church-members  in  connection  with 
the  missions  of  the  union  in  heathen  lands,  according  to 
the  latest  report,  is  96,109;  in  connection  with  European 
missions  the  number  reported  is  89,1 19.  The  former  are 
almost  exclusively  the  result  of  the  work  supported  by  the 
union  ;  the  latter  are  so  in  a  far  less  degree. 

No  mission  society,  with  work  so  widespread  and  diver- 
sified, is  able  to  report  as  large  results  in  proportion  to  the 
money  expended  and  the  effort  put  forth. 

Up  to  1865  the  Missionary  Union  continued  to  sustain 
the  missions  among  the  aborigines  that  had  been  under- 
taken by  the  General  Convention,  except  such  as  fell  within 
the  territory  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  An 
educational  and  evangelizing  work  of  considerable  impor- 
tance was  accomplished.  In  1865  this  work  was  assumed 
by  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society. 

The  history  of  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  So- 
ciety since  1845  has  been  that  of  almost  steady  progress 
and  of  highly  creditable  achievement.  The  withdrawal  of 
the  Southern  churches  produced  little  apparent  effect  on 
the  financial  receipts,  which  soon  far  exceeded  the  highest 
fieures  that  had  been  reached  before  the  division.  The 
largest  amount  ever  received  in  one  year  was  $55  ^595-92, 
for  the  year  ending  April,  1888  ;  for  the  year  ending  April, 
1894,  the  receipts  were  $333-1 3 7-6 1,  which   may  be  re- 


474  ^^^^  BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  m. 

garded  as  about  the  normal  income  of  the  society.  The 
society  has  invested  funds  and  property  to  the  vakie  of 
more  than  $1,500,000. 

The  society  devotes  a  large  part  of  its  income  to  mission 
work  among  the  foreign  populations  of  the  country.  Dur- 
ing the  last  year  reported  the  society  expended  for  work 
done  among  the  Germans  $20,404,  among  the  Scandina- 
vians, $26,296,  among  the  French,  $6618,  among  the 
Chinese,  $5680,  among  the  Bohemians,  $700,  among  the 
Poles,  $300,  among  the  Finns,  $187.50,  among  the  Portu- 
guese, $1 87.50.  Mission  work  was  done  among  the  Indians 
at  an  expense  of  $8788,  among  the  colored  people  at  an 
expense  of  $12,562,  and  among  the  Mexicans  at  an 
expense  of  $16,447.  .  Among  P^nglish-speaking  peoples 
$[31 ,024  were  expended.  TliC  fielci  of  the  society  embraces 
every  State  and  Territory  of  the  United  States  (including 
Alaska),  Mexico,  British  Columbia,  and  Manitoba. 

A  vast  educational  work  is  carried  forward  by  the  society 
among  the  colored  people  of  the  South,  the  Indians,  the 
Chinese,  and  the  Mexicans.  Thirty-three  schools  and 
colleges  are  maintained  at  an  expense  of  $171,856.  This 
educational  work  is  superintended  by  Dr.  M.  Mac  Vicar,  one 
of  the  most  experienced  educators  in  the  country,  and  is 
believed  to  be  conducted  in  a  most  economical  and  efificient 
manner.  Most  of  the  schools  have  normal  departments 
for  the  training  of  teachers,  and  instruction  in  the  Bible  and 
in  methods  of  Christian  work  is  given  in  all.  Attention  is 
given  to  manual  training  in  several  of  the  schools,  and  to 
domestic  economy  in  most  of  them.  The  schools  are  classi- 
fied as  follows  by  the  superintendent:  14  higher  and  15 
secondary  schools  for  the  colored  people ;  i  higher  and  4 
secondary  schools  for  the  Indians.  The  schools  for  colored 
people  are  distributed  throughout  the  Southern  States. 
The  school  property  is  valued  at  nearly  $r, 000, 000,  and 


Chap,  v.]  rVBLICATIOX  SOCIETY.  475 

some  of  the  schools  have  small  endowments.  About  6000 
students  received  instruction  during  the  last  year  reported. 

An  important  part  of  the  work  of  the  society  is  that  of 
assisting  by  gift  and  loan  in  the  erection  of  houses  of  wor- 
ship. This  department  of  the  work  has  of  late  years  been 
vigorously  administered  with  excellent  results.  In  the 
sixty-two  years  of  its  existence  the  society  has  recei\ed 
$8,038,082.24,  has  been  instrumental  in  the  organization 
of  5629  churches,  and  1 34, 1  79  baptisms  ha\'e  been  reported 
in  connection  with  its  work.  It  has  had  a  succession  of 
able  administrative  officers :  Jonathan  Going,  B.  M.  Hill, 
J.  S.  Backus,  Nathan  Bishop,  S.  S.  Cutting,  H.  L.  More- 
house, and  the  present  secretar}-,  T.  J.  Morgan.  Judging 
by  the  results,  the  administration  of  Secretary  Morehouse 
(1880-93)  ha-''  been  among  the  ablest,  and  the  work  can 
hardly  fail  to  go  successfully  forward  under  the  present 
gifted  and  experienced  secretary. 

The  American  Baptist  Publication  Society  may  be  said 
to  be  national  in  its  constituency.  It  has  three  main  de- 
partments :  Publication,  Bible,  and  Missionary.  Its  book 
and  tract  publication  business  has  become  very  extensive ; 
fourteen  Sunday-school  periodicals  issue  from  its  presses 
in  large  editions.  The  Bible  department  distributes  the 
Scriptures  in  various  versions.  The  work  of  completing 
the  Bible  Union  version  has  been  intrusted  to  competent 
scholars.  A  valuable  Sunday-school  and  colportage  work 
has  been  accomplished  by  the  missionary  department,  and 
ministers  have  been  supplied  with  books.  The  net  assets 
of  the  society  are  about  $1,000,000.  The  society  has  been 
among  the  chief  agencies  for  the  advancement  of  Baptist 
principles  and  evangelical  Christianity  in  America.  For 
many  years  Benjamin  Griffith  was  the  efficient  administra- 
tive head.  He  has  been  succeeded  by  Colonel  C.  H.  Banes, 
one  of  the  ablest  business  men  of  Philadelphia. 


476  rilE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  iil. 

The  American  Baptist  Education  Society  was  organized 
in  1888.  For  many  years  the  need  for  such  a  society  had 
been  felt,  and  efforts  were  made  from  1867  onward  to  secure 
a  general  agency  for  supervising  the  educational  movements 
of  the  denomination.  In  October,  1 867,  the  New  York  Bap- 
tist State  Convention  appointed  a  committee  to  arrange  for 
the  formation  of  an  Educational  Commission  for  the  promo- 
tion of  a  wider  popular  interest  in  the  higher  forms  of  edu- 
cation and  a  more  adecjuate  increase  in  the  number  of 
educated  Baptist  ministers.  An  Educational  Commission 
was  created  shortly  afterward,  with  S.  S.  Cutting  as  secre- 
tary. The  commission  at  first  restricted  its  operations  to 
New  York  and  New  Jersey.  The  secretary  soon  found 
that  the  work  could  not  be  thus  restricted,  and  his  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  the  denomination  at  large  led  to  the  call- 
ing of  a  National  Baptist  Educational  Convention.  In  two 
great  conventions,  the  first  held  in  Brooklyn  in  1870,  the 
second  in  Philadelphia  in  1872,  the  ablest  Bapiist  educators 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  gathered  and  discussed 
with  freedom  and  fullness  the  educational  problems  of  the 
time.  At  the  first  meeting  the  name  of  the  commission 
was  changed  to  the  American  Baptist  Educational  Com- 
mission. A  constitution  was  adopted  at  the  Con\-ention 
of  1872.  A  mighty  impulse  was  given  to  the  cause  of 
Christian  education,  and  many  of  our  colleges  and  semi- 
naries owe  much  of  their  prosperity  to  the  quickening  of 
popular  interest  through  this  agency  ;  but  it  had  no  finan- 
cial basis  beyond  the  subscriptions  of  a  few  individuals  who 
took  an  interest  in  effecting  the  organization,  and  it  was 
allowed  to  perish. 

The  American  Baptist  Education  Society  was  organ- 
ized (in  1888)  for  the  following  objects:  "  i.  To  promote 
the  establishment  of  schools  wherever  deemed  desirable  for 
the  development  of  a  wise  and  comprehensive  educational 


Chap,  v.]  EDUCATIOX  SOCIETY.  477 

system,  by  such  cooperation  as  may  be  practicable  in  se- 
curing sites,  buildings,  and  equipment ;  and,  in  the  early 
ntages  of  such  undertakings,  by  payment,  in  part,  of 
teachers'  salaries.  2.  To  stimulate  effort  for  the  endow- 
ment of  institutions  of  learning.  3.  To  promote  a  lively 
interest  among  Baptists  in  Christian  education,  and  espe- 
cially to  stimulate  our  young  people  to  acquire  the  best 
education  possible.  4.  To  promote  the  best  education  of 
the  Baptist  ministry,  cooperating  whenever  advisable  with 
existing  organizations  for  ministerial  education,  and  with 
our  theological  institutions  in  seminary  extension  work  for 
pastors.  5.  To  contend  for  the  application  of  the  principle 
of  separation  of  church  and  state  in  educational  matters. 
6.  To  solicit,  receive,  and  hold  in  trust,  permanent  funds, 
the  income  of  which  shall  be  applied  to  the  general  pur- 
poses of  the  society  or  to  the  specific  educational  objects, 
as  designated  by  donors.  7.  To  procure,  compile,  and 
publish  annually  the  principal  facts  concerning  the  condi- 
tion and  progress  of  educational  enterprises  of  Baptists  in 
North  America." 

The  chief  work  of  the  society  so  far,  and  that  which  has 
given  it  the  strong  position  that  it  occupies  to-day,  has 
been  the  administration,  according  to  the  above  principles, 
of  the  educational  gifts  of  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller.  It  is 
probable  that  the  society  had  its  origin  in  his  known  desire 
for  such  a  denominational  agency  for  the  administration  of 
the  funds  that  he  was  ready  to  bestow  for  the  promotion 
of  denominational  education.  The  society  was  intrusted 
with  the  work  of  raising  the  funds  necessary  for  securing 
Mr.  Rockefeller's  first  gift  for  the  founding  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago.  .  The  society  seeks  to  promote  the  affilia- 
tion of  smaller  colleges  with  the  University  of  Chicago, 
and  has  aided  many  institutions  in  the  West  and  South  in 
paying  debts  and  increasing  endowments.      Its  donations 


478  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  hi. 

have  been  conditioned  on  the  raising  of  several  times  the 
amounts  from  other  sources.  Tlie  first  efficient  secretary, 
F.  T.  Gates,  has  been  succeeded  by  H.  L.  Morehouse,  who, 
as  secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Society,  was  largely 
instrumental  in  securing  the  formation  of  the  Education 
Society. 

The  Baptist  Young  People's  Union  of  America  was 
organized  in  1 891  and  has  already  attained  to  large  pro- 
portions. It  is  an  international  society,  admitting  Canadian 
Baptists  on  equal  terms.  Its  design  is  to  promote  a  frater- 
nal union  of  all  young  people's  organizations  in  the  Bap- 
tist churches  of  North  America.  It  is  modeled  on  the 
Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  and  aims 
to  emphasize  denominational  principles  in  a  way  that  is 
not  possible  in  an  interdenominational  organization.  Its 
annual  conventions  have  been  attended  by  thousands  and 
have  been  full  of  enthusiasm.  By  means  of  its  Christian 
Culture  Courses  it  is  seeking  to  educate  the  young  people 
of  the  denomination  in  sacred  literature,  denominational 
history,  the  history  of  missions,  etc.  Its  headquarters  are 
in  Chicago,  where  its  organ,  "The  Baptist  Union,"  is  pub- 
lished. A  founding  fund  of  $40,000  ha.s  been  nearly  raised, 
and  the  union  seems  to  be  on  a  firm  basis. 

The  Woman's  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society, 
organized  in  1871,  with  its  headquarters  in  Boston,  and 
the  Woman's  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
West,  organized  the  same  year,  with  its  headquarters  in 
Chicago,  are  valuable  auxiliaries  of  the  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union.  The  Women's  Baptist  Home  Mis- 
sion Society  (1877)  and  the  Women's  American  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Society  (1877),  the  former  with  its  head- 
quarters in  Chicago,  the  latter  with  its  headquarters  in 
Boston,  cooperate  to  some  extent  with  the  American 
Baptist  Home  Mission   Society,  but  also  do  independent 


Chap.  \'.]    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY,  AND    CONGRESS.  479 

work.  The  former  sustains  a  missionary  training-school 
in  Chicago. 

The  American  Baptist  Historical  Society  was  organized 
in  1853  and  has  its  rooms  in  Philadelphia.  It  has  collected 
about  seventy- five  hundred  bound  volumes  and  a  large 
number  of  pamphlets,  pertaining  chiefly  to  the  history  of 
the  denomination. 

The  American  Baptist  Congress  is  an  international 
organization  whose  object  is  stated  to  be  "  to  promote  a 
healthful  sentiment  among  Baptists  through  free  and  court- 
eous discussion  of  current  questions  by  suitable  persons." 
It  was  organized  in  1882  and  holds  an  annual  meeting 
for  the  reading  and  discussion  of  papers  on  religious  and 
social  matters  of  current  interest.  A  valuable  body  of 
literature  is  being  formed  by  the  annual  publication  of  its 
proceedings. 

The  work  of  the  denomination  in  literary  and  theologi- 
cal education  during  the  past  fifty  years  has  been  too  large 
and  manifold  to  be  treated  advantageously  in  the  space 
that  is  available.  Most  of  the  colleges  North  and  South 
founded  before  1845  have  survived  and  have  greatly  added 
to  their  endowments,  equipment,  and  usefulness.  Brown 
University,  the  oldest  of  them  all,  was  never  so  prosperous 
as  within  the  last  few  years.  Its  endowment  and  equip- 
ment have  made  rapid  strides,  and  the  number  of  its 
students  has  greatly  increased.  Its  present  staff  numbers 
66,  and  its  assets  aggregate  $2,979,570.  Colgate  Univer- 
sity (the  successor  of  the  old  Hamilton  Theological  Insti- 
tute and  Madison  University)  has  been  amply  endowed 
and  equipped  by  the  sons  of  William  Colgate  and  is  going 
rapidly  forward  in  arts  and  theological  work.  The  late 
President  E.  Dodge  doubtless  deserves  chief  credit  for 
what  has  been  accomplished.  It  has  property  and  en- 
dowments valued  at  $2,265,000. 


48o  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

The  University  of  Rochester  was  founded  in  1850  as  a 
result  of  an  effort  to  remove  the  institution  from  Hamilton. 
Under  the  presidency  of  Martin  B.  Anderson,  one  of  the 
ablest  of  educators,  the  university  attained  to  the  front  rank 
of  denominational  institutions.  Under  President  David  J. 
Hill  it  is  still  advancing.  Its  property  and  endowments 
now  amount  to  $1,129,262.  The  Rochester  Theological 
Seminary  was  an  ofTshoot  of  the  university  (1851).  The 
late  Ezekiel  G.  Robinson  gave  it  a  commanding  position 
by  his  strong  personality  and  his  power  as  a  teacher. 
Under  Augustus  H.  Strong,  an  educator  and  writer  of 
high  rank  (1872  onward),  large  additions  have  been  made 
to  endowment  and  ecjuipment,  and  there  has  been  progress 
in  many  directions.      Its  assets  aggregate  $777,515. 

Newton  Theological  Institution,  though  venerable  with 
age,  has  lost  nothing  of  the  elasticity  of  youth.  During 
the  long  presidency  of  Al\'ah  Hovey,  one  of  the  foremost 
educators  and  theological  authors  of  the  denomination,  it 
has  maintained  its  position  as  one  of  the  leading  theologi- 
cal seminaries  of  th.e  country.  Steady  progress  has  been 
made  in  endowment  and  equipment.  It  has  a  faculty  of 
10,  and  assets  valued  at  $639,603. 

The  Baptist  Union  Theological  Seminary  (founded  in 
1867,  now  the  Di\'inity  School  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago) had  already  attained  to  a  position  of  usefulness  and 
influence  not  greatly  surpassed  by  the  older  institutions  of 
the  denomination  when  in  1890  it  became  a  department  of 
the  University  of  Chicago.  George  W.  Northrup,  one  of 
the  ablest  theologians  and  most  inspiring  teachers  that  the 
denomination  has  produced,  was  president  up  to  1890. 
The  present  dean  is  Eri  B.  Hulbert.  It  has  12  instructors, 
and  its  assets  are  valued  at  $525,000. 

Crozer  Theological  Seminary  (Upland,  Pa.)  was  founded 
a  year  later.      It  has  enjoyed  the  efficient  services  of  Presi- 


Chap,  v.]  EDUCATIOX.  481 

dent  Henry  G.  Weston  from  the  beginning,  and  has  under 
his  leadership,  and  with  the  generous  support  of  the  Crozer 
family  and  others,  taken  its  place  side  by  side  with  the  other 
great  theological  institutions  that  have  been  mentioned,  all 
of  which  are  so  excellent  that  comparisons  would  be  invidi- 
ous.     It  has  a  staff  of  8  and  assets  worth  $594,500. 

The  founding  of  the  University  of  Chicago  (incorporated 
1890,  opened  1892)  has  already  been  referred  to.  Presi- 
dent William  R.  Harper,  one  of  the  foremost  teachers  of 
oriental  languages,  with  the  financial  support  of  John  D. 
Rockefeller  and  others,  has  placed  this  new  institution 
alongside  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Johns  Hopkins,  and  Cornell,  as 
one  of  the  great  universities  of  America.  Its  property  and 
endowments  now  aggregate  more  than  $6,500,000  and 
are  likely  to  be  largely  increased.  More  than  $4,000,000 
have  been  given  by  the  chief  founder.  The  number  of 
instructors  has  already  reached  162. 

Columbian  University  has  gone  steadily  forward  in  en- 
dowments and  usefulness.  Although  its  property  and 
endowments  amount  to  only  a  little  over  $1,000,000,  it 
enjoys  unique  facilities  from  its  location  in  the  national 
capital.  In  all  departments  there  are  112  instructors  and 
900  students.  The  late  President  James  C.  Welling  de- 
serves much  of  the  credit  for  the  expansion  of  the  work  of 
the  university. 

The  rest  of  the  colleges  founded  since  1844  may  be 
mentioned  in  alphabetical  order.  Many  of  them  have  fair 
endowments  and  all  are  doing  valuable  work.  Baylor  Uni- 
versity, Waco,  Texas  (1845),  has  long  had  at  its  head  Rufus 
C.  Burleson,  a  man  of  marked  ability.  It  has  2  7  instructors, 
800  students,  and  property  and  endowments  valued  at 
$402,000.  Bethel  College,  Russellville,  Ky.,  has  7  in- 
structors and  a.ssets  of  $235,000.  Bucknell  University, 
Lewisburg,  Pa.  (1846),  J.  W.  Harris  president,  has  a  faculty 


482  THE   BAPTISTS.  fPKR.  111. 

of  22  and  property  and  endowments  valued  at  $650,000. 
California  College,  Oakland  (1874),  is  presided  over  by 
S.  B.  Morse,  and  has  a  faculty  of  9  and  assets  worth 
$107,000.  Carson-Newman  College,  Mossy  Creek,  Tenn., 
presided  over  by  J.  T.  Henderson,  has  a  faculty  of  10  and 
assets  worth  $104,000.  Central  University,  Pella,  low^a 
(1858),  is  prospering  under  the  administration  of  Presi- 
dent John  Stuart.  Des  Moines  College,  Iowa  (1865), 
has  H.  L.  Stetson  for  its  president,  is  affiliated  with  the 
University  of  Chicago,  has  1 1  instructors,  and  its  assets 
amount  to  $180,000.  Furman  University,  Greenville,  S.  C. 
(1852),  is  presided  over  by  Charles  Manly,  and  has  10  in- 
structors and  assets  valued  at  $150,000.  Howard  Payne 
College,  Brownwood,  Texas  (1890),  has  J.  D.  Robnett  for 
its  president,  13  instructors,  and  property  worth  $90,000. 
Kalamazoo  College,  Mich.  (1855),  has  8  instructors  and 
assets  worth  $217,000.  La  Grange  College,  Mo.  (1866), 
J.  F.  Cook  president,  has  8  instructors  and  assets  valued 
at  $50,000.  Leland  University,  New  Orleans  (1870), 
E.  C.  Mitchell  president,  has  15  instructors  and  assets 
worth  $253,750.  Los  Angeles  College,  Cal.  (1887),  has 
8  instructors  and  assets  valued  at  $55,000.  McMinnville 
College,  Ore.  (1859),  T.  G.  Brownson  president,  has  5  in- 
structors and  $68,800  worth  of  assets.  Mississippi  Col- 
lege, Clinton,  Miss.  (1850),  R.  A.  Venable  president,  has 
7  instructors  and  $90,000  in  buildings  and  endowments. 
Mount  Lebanon  College,  La.  (1854),  W.  C.  Robinson 
president,  has  9  instructors  and  property  valued  at  $32,- 
000.  Ottawa  University,  Kan.  (1865),  F.  W.  Colgrove 
president,  has  a  staff  of  12  and  assets  equal  to  $128,640. 
Ouachita  College,  Ark.  (1886),  is  presided  over  by  J.  W. 
Conger,  and  has  a  staff  of  14  and  assets  valued  at  $72,000. 
Sioux  Falls  University,  S,  Dak.  (1883),  has  E.  D.  Meredith 
for  president,  8  instructors,  and  assets  valued  at  $43,000. 


Chap.  V.J  EDUCATIOX.  483 

Southwestern  University,  Jackson,  Tenn.  (1849),  G.  M. 
Savage  president,  has  7  instructors  and  property  and  en- 
dowments valued  at  $142,500.  William  Jewell  College, 
Liberty,  Mo.  (1849),  J.  P.  Greene  president,  has  12  in- 
structors and  assets  valued  at  $303,629. 

The  number  of  ladies'  colleges  and  seminaries  is  too  great 
for  even  brief  mention.  Vassar  College,  Poughkeepsie, 
N.  Y.  (1861),  occupies  a  position  so  unique  that  it  may 
well  be  singled  out  for  special  mention.  It  ranks  in  en- 
dowment, equipment,  and  in  the  grade  and  quality  of  its 
work  with  the  best  colleges  for  men.  It  has  a  staff  of  45, 
and  property  and  endowments  amounting  to  $1,941,956, 
due  chiefly  to  the  benefactions  of  the  Vassar  family.  The 
present  head  of  the  institution,  James  M.  Taylor,  ranks 
high  among  the  educators  of  the  country. 

The  Regular  Baptists  of  America  have  7  theological 
seminaries,  besides  theological  departments  in  several  of 
the  colleges;  36  universities  and  colleges;  32  ladies'  sem- 
inaries of  various  grades ;  47  coeducational  seminaries  and 
academies;  and  31  institutions  for  colored  people  and  In- 
dians. The  aggregate  value  of  educational  property  and 
endowments  exceeds  $33,000,000. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

DIVISIONS   AND   PARTIES,   AND   CONCLUDING   REMARKS.^ 

It  is  probable  that  no  large  denomination  in  America 
has  suffered  less  from  disharmony  in  doctrine  and  practice 
than  the  Baptists.  Yet  from  the  earliest  time  differences 
arose,  and  disunion  sometimes  resulted. 

The  anti-missionary  schism  in  the  present  period  has 
already  been  referred  to.  The  anti-missionary  parties, 
under  various  names,  still  set  themselves  in  opposition  to 
the  spirit  of  the  gospel  and  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  the 
regions  which  they  occupied  fifty  years  ago.  They  have 
manifested  remarkable  vitality  and  their  actual  numbers 
do  not  seem  to  have  materially  decreased  ;  but  the  prog- 
ress of  evangelical  Baptists  has  been  so  great  as  to  leave 
them  an  insignificant  and  almost  unnoticed  minority.  Their 
protection  against  the  influence  of  modern  evangelical 
Christianity  is  their  ignorance  ;  and  they  occupy  chiefly  the 
mountainous  regions  of  the  South  and  Southwest,  which 
civilization  is  slow  in  penetrating.- 

No  Baptist  party  has  labored  more  assiduously  for  the 
propagation  of  its  distinctive  principles  than  the  Seventh- 
day  Baptists.  Their  rise  in  Rhode  Island,  their  early  or- 
ganizations in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  and  their  gain 

1  See  vols.  i.  and  xii.  of  the  present  series  ;  and  works  on  the  various 
parties  considered  as  given  in  the  Bibliography. 

2  For  statistics  showing  the  numbers  and  distribution  of  the  various  sect.s  of 
anti-missionary  Baptists,  the  reader  is  referred  to  vol.  i.  of  the  present  series, 
pp.  45-52. 


Chap.  VI.]  THE   SEVEXril-DAY  BAPriSTS.  485 

of  congregations  from  the  Keithian  Quaker  movement  of 
the  last  century,  have  already  been  noticed.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  the  old  congregations  have  been  maintained,  and 
some  have  been  added,  chiefly  by  colonization  from  these 
early  centers.  Thus  the  church  at  giscataway,  N.  J.,  dis- 
missed members  in  1735  to  form  a  church  at  Shiloh,  N.  J., 
others  in  1829  to  form  one  at  Hayfield,  Pa.,  and  others  in 
1838  to  form  a  church  at  Plainfield,  N.  J.  The  congrega- 
tions in  northern,  central,  and  western  New  York,  northern 
Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska,  can  be  traced  to  the  Rhode  Island  center,  and 
all  the  Rhode  Island  congregations  to  that  organized  in 
Newport  through  the  labors  of  Stephen  Mumford,  an 
Enghsh  Sabbatarian,  in  167 1.  It  is  said  that  "  the  names 
of  very  many  of  the  first  Sabbath-keepers  in  the  three 
original  centers  have  been  preserved  to  the  present  time. 
Of  the  eighty-three  members  of  the  Newport  church  in  the 
first  twenty-one  years  of  its  history,  at  least  fifty-six  have 
descendants  still  bearing  their  family  names  in  many  parts 
of  the  denomination.  The  same  can  be  said  of  sixty-four 
of  the  seventy- five  members  of  the  Piscataway  church  in 
its  first  seventeen  years.  Fully  one  half  of  the  names 
registered  in  four  or  five  churches  near  Philadelphia  in  the 
first  twenty- five  years  are  well  known  among  the  people 
who  observe  the  Sabbath  in  America.  This  fact  is  true  in 
a  greater  degree  in  respect  to  the  converts  who  united  with 
these  churches  and  their  immediate  offshoots  in  the  next 
fifty  years  of  their  growth."  This  would  seem  to  show 
that  while  converts  to  Sabbatarianism  are  made  with  the 
greatest  difficulty,  once  made  they  are  likely  to  be  per- 
manent, and  their  descendants  are  likely  to  follow  in  their 
footsteps. 

Yearly  meetings  were  an  early  institution  among  the 
Sabbatarian  Baptists.      In   1802,  at  a  yearly  meeting  at 


486  THE   BArriSTS.  ■         [Fkk.  III. 

Hopkinton,  R.  I.,  a  General  Conference  was  projected,  and 
in  1806  it  was  fully  organized.  At  the  former  date  the 
denomination  had  a  membership  of  12 15,  with  1 1  churches 
and  10  ministers.  Only  eight  of  the  churches  united  at 
first  in  the  General  Conference.  In  1818  the  name 
"Seventh-day  Baptist"  was  adopted  by  the  Conference. 
The  constitution  was  slightly  modified  in  1840  and  more 
materially  in  1875.  In  the  earlier  form  the  independence 
of  the  churches  was  scrupulously  guarded  ;  the  amended 
form  gives  to  the  Conference  the  right  to  act  as  "  an  ad- 
visory council,  to  which  appeals  on  certain  matters  can  be 
made  from  the  churches,"  and  "  the  power  to  exclude  any 
church  for  want  of  harmony  with  the  others  in  faith  and 
practice."  The  Conference  appoints  various  boards  for  the 
administration  of  the  work  of  the  denomination. 

On  the  recommendation  of  the  Conference,  three  Asso- 
ciations were  formed  in  1835,  designated  as  the  Eastern, 
Central,  and  Western.  The  Northwestern,  Southeastern, 
and  Southwestern  were  afterward  added.  These  Associa- 
tions embrace  a  present  membership  of  over  9000,  with 
106  churches  and  118  ordained  ministers. 

As  early  as  1801  a  majority  of  the  churches  began  to 
cooperate  in  home  mission  work.  In  1818  the  Conference 
formed  a  Board  of  Missions,  and  from  that  time  onward  a 
number  of  missionaries  were  sustained.  About  1836  mis- 
sion work  was  undertaken  among  the  Jews  of  New  York 
City.  This  was  abandoned  about  1842.  In  1843  another 
missionary  society  was  formed,  which  in  1847  opened  a 
mission  at  Shanghai,  China.  This  mission  has  been  sus- 
tained with  considerable  vigor,  and  has  now  a  dispensary 
with  a  medical  missionary  in  charge,  three  da}'-schools  and 
two  boarding-schools,  etc.  Mission  work  was  attempted 
in  Palestine  (1854  onward),  but  w^as  after  a  few  years  aban- 
doned.    Since  1886  mission  work  has  been  done  among 


Chap,  vi.]  THK  DISCIPLES.  487 

the  Jews  of  New  York  atid  of  Galicia,  Austria.  According 
to  the  report  of  1890,  twenty-nine  missionaries  at  home  and 
abroad  had  been  supported  by  the  board,  wholly  or  in  part, 
at  an  expense  of  $4578. 

A  partial  endowment  of  the  publishing  house  of  the  de- 
nomination enables  it  to  distribute  gratuitously  and  other- 
wise a  large  amount  of  tract  and  periodical  literature,  and 
this  circulation  of  literature  is  probably  the  most  effective 
agency  employed.  There  is  no  excuse  to-day  for  igno- 
rance as  to  the  views  of  the  Seventh-day  brethren,  and 
Baptist  ministers  who  prefer  the  Lord's  Day  to  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  do  so  in  the  face  of  all  that  can  be  said  in  favor 
of  the  superior  obligation  of  the  latter. 

The  denomination  supports  four  institutions  of  learning. 
The  most  important  of  these  is  Alfred  University,  Alfred, 
N.  Y.  It  embraces  theological,  arts,  and  normal  depart- 
ments, is  open  to  both  sexes,  and  has  an  endo\vment  of 
$1  13,177  (1890)  and  a  library  of  nearly  ten  thousand  vol- 
umes. The  other  institutions  are  Milton  College,  Wis., 
chartered  in  1867,  Albion  Academy, Wis.,  founded  in  1854, 
and  Salem  College,  W.  Va.,  which  began  its  work  in  1889. 

The  Expose  of  Faith  and  Practice  adopted  by  the 
Conference  in  1880  is  a  clear  and  excellent  statement, 
which  is  in  entire  harmony  with  Regular  Baptist  teaching, 
except  in  Article  IX.,  which  reads  as  follows :  "  W^e  believe 
the  seventh  day  to  be  the  Sabbath  of  Jehovah,  and  that  it 
should  be  kept  holy  as  a  memorial  of  creation  and  a  type 
of  the  saints'  rest  in  heaven.  Gen.  ii.  2,  3  ;  Exod.  xx.  8- 
I  I  ;  Heb.  iv.  i-i  i." 

By  far  the  most  important  schism  suffered  by  the  Bap- 
tist body  in  the  United  States  was  that  of  which  Alexander 
Campbell  was  the  occasion  and  one  of  the  chief  agents. 
The  events  that  led  to  the  schism  are  fully  narrated,  from 
the  Disciples'  point  of  view,  in  vol.  xii.  of  the  present  series. 


488  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  m. 

It  would  not  be  in  accord  with  tlie  purpose  of  this  series 
to  enter  polemically  into  a  discussion  of  the  points  of  differ- 
ence between  Baptists  and  Disciples ;  but  the  importance 
of  the  matter  from  a  Baptist  point  of  view  is  too  great  to 
admit  of  its  being  passed  over  in  silence.  The  antecedents 
of  Thomas  and  Alexander  Campbell,  including  their  con- 
nection with  Scottish  sects,  and  the  manifest  influence  of 
Sandemanianism  on  their  modes  of  religious  thought ;  their 
unsuccessful  attempt,  on  a  basis  of  Christian  union  and 
antisectarianism,  to  secure  a  following ;  their  uniting  with 
the  Redstone  Baptist  Association  (1813);  the  widespread 
propagation  of  their  peculiar  views  throughout  extensive 
regions  in  southwestern  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Kentuck}', 
and  Ohio,  facilitated  by  their  fellowship  with  the  Baptists ; 
the  strife  and  confusion  introduced  into  churches  and  As- 
sociations by  the  propagation  of  these  views,  must  be 
passed  by  with  this  bare  notice. 

The  condition  of  the  Baptist  churches  in  the  regions 
where  the  teachings  of  Campbell  made  the  greatest  im- 
pression was  highly  fa\-orable  to  the  rise  and  progress  of 
such  a  movement.  One  of  the  ablest  Baptist  obser\ers 
and  opponents  of  the  movement  enumerates,  among  the 
causes  that  favored  the  progress  of  the  so-called  "  reforma- 
tion," "  the  prexalence  of  hyper-Cahinistic  or  antinomian 
views  in  many  Baptist  churches.  Ha\'ing  adopted  in  its 
main  points  the  Cahinian  theology,  they  were  led  by  their 
system  into  speculations  as  unpopular  as  they  were  sterile. 
To  free  them  from  objections  and  render  them  acceptable 
to  their  auditors,  the  pastors  spent  a  large  portion  of  the 
time  devoted  to  pulpit  labors  in  their  discussion  ;  and  what 
occupied  so  much  of  their  thought  grew  into  exaggerated 
importance  in  their  estimation.  They  seemed  to  think  that 
they  were  called  to  the  ministry  for  no  other  purpose  than 
to  proclaim  and  vindicate  a  few  abstruse  and  barren  points 


Chap.  \  i.J  THE  DISCIPLES.  489 

of  the  Calvinistic  creed  ;  but  their  ministry,  excepting-  to  a 
few  indoctrinated  zealots,  was  not  pleasing".  The  people 
generally,  becoming  disgusted  with  such  dry  and  unsatis- 
fying speculations,  were  ready  to  attend  on  any  ministry 
which  promised  them  a  more  palatable,  if  not  a  more  nu- 
tritious, diet.  In  churches  of  this  .sort  Mr.  Campbell  found 
his  way  prepared  before  him  "  (Jeter,  "  Campbellism  Ex- 
amined," pp.  79,  80). 

Alexander  Campbell  was  a  man  of  fair  education  and  of 
unbounded  confidence  in  his  resources  and  his  tenets.  He 
was  possessed  of  a  powerful  personality  and  was  one  of  the 
ablest  debaters  of  his  age.  In  the  use  of  caricature  and 
sarcasm  he  has  rarely  been  surpassed.  Throughout  the 
regions  that  he  chose  for  the  propagation  of  his  views  the 
number  of  Baptist  m.inisters  who  could  in  any  way  approach 
him  in  argumentative  power  or  in  ability  to  sway  the  masses 
of  the  people  was  very  small.  The  claim  that  he  made  to 
being  the  reformer  of  Christendom  and  the  restorer  of  "  the 
ancient  gospel,"  long  since  buried  beneath  human  tradi- 
tions, and  his  unrelenting  and  merciless  warfare  against  the 
clergy,  including  the  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  and  Methodist 
ministry  ;  his  pronounced  opposition  to  missionary  societies 
and  to  all  so-called  "  human  institutions  "  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  gospel ;  his  repudiation  of  creeds  and  his  insist- 
ence on  limiting  doctrinal  statements  to  the  language  of 
Scripture  ;  his  repudiation  of  the  requirement  of  the  rela- 
tion of  one's  Christian  experience  before  baptism,  which 
prevailed  in  Baptist  churches  and  which  was  in  some  re- 
spects open  to  criticism,  and  his  substitution  therefor  of  a 
simple  acknowledgment  of  belief  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Son  of  God  as  a  prerequisite  to  baptism  for  the  remission 
of  sins — these  and  other  features  of  his  system  proved 
highly  popular,  and  there  were  few^  Baptist  churches  in 
the  regions  traversed  by  Campbell  and  his  followers  that 


490  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Pkk.  hi. 

were  not  more  or  less  affected  by  his  views.  The  crisis 
occurred  in  1826  and  1827,  when  a  number  of  Associa- 
tions took  action  against  the  encroachments  of  the  new 
doctrines  and  insisted  on  conformity  to  the  Philadelphia 
Confession,  which  had  been  recognized  as  the  standard 
of  orthodoxy  by  most  of  the  Associations  on  their  or- 
ganization. 

From  this  time  onward  the  followers  of  Campbell  as- 
sumed the  position  of  a  distinct  denomination.  After  the 
party  had  accepted  the  responsibilities  of  denominational 
life,  and  especially  since  the  death  of  Alexander  Campbell, 
its  attitude  toward  other  denominations  became  less  bel- 
ligerent. Its  representatives  no  longer  stigmatize  the  min- 
istry of  evangelical  denominations  as  "priests,"  "popes," 
"  cardinals,"  "  textuaries,"  "  scrap-doctors,"  "  goat-milk- 
ers," etc.  ;  they  no  longer  denounce  ministers  who  receive 
salaries  as  "  hirelings  "  ;  they  no  longer  stigmatize  Baptist 
and  other  evangelical  churches  as  "  the  legitimate  daugh- 
ters of  that  mother  of  harlots,  the  Church  of  Rome  "  ; 
they  no  longer  teach  that  "  an  attempt  to  convert  pagans 
and  Mohammedans  to  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God, 
and  the  sent  of  the  Father,  until  Christians  are  united,  is 
also  an  attempt  to  frustrate  the  prayer  of  the  Messiah,  to 
subvert  his  throne  and  government,"  or  assert  that  the 
Bible  "  gives  us  no  idea  of  a  missionary  without  the  power 
of  working  miracles,"  but,  on  the  contrary,  carry  on  ag- 
gressive missionary  work  in  pagan  and  Mohammedan  lands  ; 
they  no  longer  caricature  solemn  services  in  which  Baptist 
missionaries  are  set  apart  for  work  among  the  heathen,  or 
seek  to  throw  suspicion  on  the  honesty  of  those  who  collect 
and  administer  missionary  funds  by  speaking  of  "  the  mis- 
sionary plan  "  as,  "  in  many  instances,"  "  a  system  of  iniq- 
uitous peculation  and  speculation,"  or  by  characterizing  the 
modern  missionary  method  as  "  the  plan  of  saving  the  world 


CiiA!'.  \i.]  THE  DISCIPLES.  4^1 

by  means  of  money  and  science ;  of  converting  pagans  by 
funds  raised  indirectly  from  spinning-wheels,  fruit-stalls, 
corn-fields,  melon  patches,  potato  lots,  rags,  children's 
playthings,  and  religious  newspapers  consecrated  to  mis- 
sionary purposes  "  ;  they  no  longer  speak  of  Bible  societies 
and  other  benevolent  organizations  as  "  fashionable  proj- 
ects "  that  "  deserve  no  more  regard  from  sober  Christians, 
Christians  intelligent  in  the  New  Testament,  than  the  va- 
■  garies,  the  febrile  flights  of  patients  in  an  inflammatory 
fever  "  ;  they  no  longer  caricature  the  Christian  experiences 
that  are  related  in  evangelical  churches  as  a  condition  of 
receiving  baptism  ;  they  no  longer  repudiate  Christian  in- 
stitutions of  learning  as  unauthorized  by  Scripture,  but 
they  cherish  noble  institutions  in  which  theology,  as  well 
as  the  arts  and  sciences,  is  taught  to  those  who  have  de- 
voted themselves  to  the  ministry  ;  they  have  ceased  to 
speak  contemptuously  of  the  intellectual  abilities  and  the 
Christian  character  of  all  who  oppose  their  views. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  belligerency  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  Campbell  and  his  followers.  The  polem- 
ical spirit  was  active  at  that  time,  and  especially  in  the 
Southwest,  and  hard  hits  were  received  as  well  as  gi\-en 
by  the  advocates  of  "  the  ancient  gospel  "  ;  but  they  were 
the  aggressors,  and  in  attempting  to  overthrow  a  system 
to  which  they  had  voluntarily  and  with  their  eyes  open 
attached  themselves,  and  in  struggling  with  all  their  might 
to  remain  in  the  fellowship  of  a  body  whose  principles  and 
practices  they  unsparingly  condemned,  they  could  scarcely 
have  expected  milder  treatment  at  the  hands  of  churches 
and  Associations  whose  principles  were  in  jeopardy.  No 
denomination  could  have  tolerated  within  its  pale  a  party 
that  antagonized  with  such  bitterness  its  ministry  and  its 
cherished  doctrines. 

If  the  Baptists  of  the  Southwest  had  been  in  the  third 


492  THE   BAPTISTS.  [Pkr.  hi. 

decade  of  the  century  what  Baptists  are  to-day — if  they 
had  been  more  intelHgent  and  had  possessed  an  educated 
ministry,  if  they  had  laid  as  Httle  stress  on  confessions  of 
faith  as  Baptists  do  at  present,  if  they  had  taught  as  evan- 
geHcal  a  form  of  doctrine  as  that  taught  by  the  mass  of  the 
denomination  to-day,  if  the  missionary  spirit  had  been  as 
active  then  as  now — it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
such  a  movement  as  that  led  by  Campbell  to  have  arisen 
or  to  have  gained  such  a  following  as  it  did.  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  influence  of  this  party  has  been  one 
among  many  causes  that  have  led  to  the  prevalence  among 
Baptists  of  a  more  evangelical  type  of  doctrine  and  the 
proper  subordination  of  confessions  of  faith  to  Scripture ; 
but  in  this  transformation  the  advance  of  education  has 
been  the  chief  factor,  and  the  pervasive  influence  of  the 
liberal  movement  in  theology  in  Europe  and  America  has 
no  doubt  been  greater  tlian  that  of  the  Disciples.  Tlie  in- 
fluence of  Methodism  and  Cumberland  Presbyterianism  in 
this  direction  has  also,  no  doubt,  been  very  considerable. 

Baptists  and  Disciples  are  to-day  far  nearer  to  harmony 
than  were  the  Baptists  of  1830  and  Alexander  Campbell. 
The  two  denominations  have  existed  side  by  side  for  the 
last  sixty  years,  mutually  influencing  each  other.  The 
Disciples,  as  above  remarked,  have  abandoned  much  tl^at 
was  most  objectionable  in  the  method  and  substance  of  tlie 
teachings  of  the  founder  of  the  denomination,  and  the  Bap- 
tist teaching  and  practice  of  the  present  is  far  less  obnox- 
ious to  criticism  than  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  schism.  A 
desire  for  union  has  often  been  expressed  by  representa- 
tives of  both  denominations,  and  it  is  earnestly  to  be  de- 
sired that  the  time  may  soon  come  when  there  shall  be 
such  harmony  of  doctrine  and  practice  as  would  furnish  a 
true  basis  for  an  organic  union.  At  present  Baptists  are 
constrained,  by  careful  study  of  Disciples'  literature  and 


Chap,  vi.]  BAPTISTS  A. YD   DISCIPLES.  493 

observation  of  their  practice,  to  regard  the  position  of  Dis- 
ciples as  unsatisfactory  in  the  following  particulars:  I.  In 
the  stress  laid  upon  baptism  and  the  way  in  which  it  is 
connected  with  the  remission  of  sins.  2.  In  representing 
faith  as  too  exclusively  an  intellectual  act  of  belief  in  the 
divine  sonship  of  an  historical  personage.  3.  In  eliminat- 
ing, or  not  sufficiently  emphasizing,  the  emotional  element 
in  conversion.  4.  In  not  sufficiently  emphasizing  the  doc- 
trines of  grace,  or,  in  other  terms,  inclining  toward  Pelagian 
or  Arminian  rather  than  Augustinian  or  Calvinistic  concep- 
tions of  theology  and  anthropology.  Baptists  have  the 
impression  that  the  Disciples  unduly  limit  the  operations  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  asserting  that  he  operates  only  through 
the  Word  ;  but  if  by  "Word"  we  understand  the  Divine 
Logos  who  was  active  in  the  creation,  who  enlightens  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  and  who  became  flesh  and 
tabernacled  among  us,  the  statement  seems  unobjectionable. 
It  is  probably  true,  however,  that  many  individual  Baptists 
and  many  individual  Disciples  are  in  close  agreement  in 
their  conceptions  of  divine  truth ;  and  there  are  certain 
irenical  statements  set  forth  by  leaders  of  the  Disciples 
with  which  Baptists  would  find  little  fault.  The  brief 
confession  of  faith  by  Alexander  Campbell  (copied  in  \()1. 
xii.  of  the  present  series,  pp.  103,  104)  is  almost  unobjec- 
tionable from  a  Baptist  point  of  view.  But  he  simply  as- 
serts his  belief  in  the  authority  and  perpetuity  of  baptism, 
without  defining  its  nature  or  purpose.  A  still  more  sat- 
isfactory confession,  from  the  Baptist  point  of  view,  is  that 
of  Isaac  Errett  (copied  in  the  same  work,  pp.  104-106). 
It  contains  nothing  that  is  positively  objectionable.  It  is 
what  these  writers  omit  to  say  rather  than  what  they  say 
in  these  statements  that  prevents  Baptists  and  Disciples 
from  harmonizing.  An  objectionable  feature  of  Alexander 
Campbell's  teachings  is  his  denial  of  the  duty  of  the  unbap- 


494  77/A  BAPriSTs.  [PiiK.  1,1. 

tized  to  engage  in  prayer,  praise,  or  other  acts  of  devotion, 
on  the  ground  that  these  belong  only  to  those  who  have 
been  pardoned  and  accepted;  and  that  "immersion"  is 
"  the  first  act  of  a  Christian's  life,  or,  rather,  the  regen- 
erating act  itself." 

The  schism  was  precipitated  by  the  exclusion  of  the 
followers  of  the  Campbells  from  the  Redstone  (Pa.)  A.sso- 
ciation  in  1826  and  from  the  Beaver  (Pa.)  Association  in 
1829.  Owing  to  the  unsympathetic  attitude  of  a  majority 
of  the  members  of  the  former  Association,  Alexander  Camp- 
bell had  some  time  before  transferred  his  membership  to 
the  Mahoning  (O.)  Association,  a  majority  of  whose  mem- 
bers favored  his  principles.  Four  churches  withdrew  and 
joined  with  the  Bea\er  Association  in  condemning  the 
views  of  Campbell  and  in  excluding  his  followers  from 
fellowship.  In  1829  the  Mahoning  Association  was  dis- 
solved "  as  an  advisory  council  or  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal," 
and  this  event  is  said  to  have  consummated  the  separation 
of  Campbell  and  his  followers  from  the  Baptists.  Many 
other  Associations  soon  took  action  similar  to  that  of  the 
Redstone  and  the  Beaver.  The  growth  of  the  "  Disciples  " 
party  was  very  rapid,  and  large  numbers  of  Baptists,  Pres- 
byterians, and  Methodists  were  won  to  its  support.  Bap- 
tists soon  recovered  measurably  from  the  shock  and  ha've 
steadily  advanced  in  the  regions  covered  by  the  activity  of 
the  Disciples.  It  is  probable  that  the  cause  of  antipedo- 
baptism  and  of  immersion  gained  largely  from  the  schism. 
That  it  may  speedily  come  to  an  end  with  no  sacrifice  of 
truth  should  be  the  earnest  prayer  of  Baptists  and  Disciples 
alike. 

"  Old-Landmarkism  "  is  a  term  that  has  been  used  to 
characterize  a  Baptist  party  that  has  had  a  large  following 
in  the  Southwest,  and  whose  principal  leader  was  the  late 
J.  R.  Graves,  from  1846  editor  of  "  The  Tennessee  Baptist." 


Chai'.  \'i.]  OLD-LAXDMARKISM.  495 

Graves  was  one  of  the  ablest  polemicists  of  the  age,  re- 
minding one  strikingly  of  Alexander  Campbell  in  his 
methods  and  resources.  This  movement  was  no  doubt  a 
product  of  the  controversial  spirit  that  pervaded  the  South- 
west, of  which  the  Disciples  movement  was  itself  both  effect 
and  cause.  The  distinguishing  features  of  the  Old- Land- 
mark system  are  the  zealous  advocacy  of  Baptist  apostolic 
succession,  insistence  on  the  necessity  of  properly  author- 
ized administrators  of  baptism  to  the  validity  of  the  ordi- 
nance and  consequent  refusal  to  recognize  as  valid  baptism 
administered  by  a  pedobaptist,  and  refusal  to  recognize 
pedobaptist  organizations  as  churches  or  their  ministers  as 
properly  authorized  preachers  of  the  gospel.  If  the  Old- 
Landmarkers  had  gone  a  step  farther,  and  had  refused  to 
have  fellowship  with  those  who  accepted  "  alien  immer- 
sion," recognized  pedobaptist  organizations  as  churches, 
and  exchanged  pulpits  with  their  ministers,  they  would 
have  inevitably  formed  a  sect.  Fortunately  their  convic- 
tions have  not  carried  them  to  this  extreme. 

We  left  the  Free-will  Baptists  in  what  certain  of  their 
own  writers  have  termed  the  period  of  the  "  Judges." 
Randall  had  died  in  1808,  and  so  much  of  disharmony  at 
once  manifested  itself  among  his  followers  that  concerted 
action  was  for  some  time  impracticable.  Elias  Smith  and 
Abner  Jones  sought  to  bring  about  a  fusion  of  the  denomi- 
nation with  the  "  Christians."  This  policy  was  strenuously 
opposed  by  John  Buzzell  in  his  "  Religious  Magazine,"  and 
otherwise  ( 1 8 1 1  onward).  The  most  energetic  and  success- 
ful worker  of  the  early  part  of  the  period  was  John  Colby, 
who  from  1809  till  his  early  death  in  181  7  e\'angelized  with 
remarkable  zeal  throughout  the  States  already  occupied  by 
the  denomination,  and  planted  the  Free-will  standard  in 
Rhode  Island.  From  1820  to  1830  the  Free-will  Baptist 
cause  made  rapid  progress  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 


496  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  in. 

and  Rhode  Island,  and  extended  its  conquests  to  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Ohio,  and  other  parts  of  the 
West  and  South.  The  remnants  of  the  General  Baptists 
of  North  Carolina  were  brought  into  fraternal  relations 
with  the  denomination,  and  a  correspondence  was  estab- 
lished with  the  English  General  Baptists.  Some  of  the 
Six  Principle  churches  of  Rhode  Island  entered  into  frater- 
nal relations  with  this  more  aggressive  party.  A  number 
of  churches  were  planted  in  the  British  provinces  through 
the  zealous  efforts  of  Free-will  evangelists.  By  1830  the 
denomination  had  450  churches,  with  a  membership  of 
21,000.  Twenty  Quarterly  Meetings  and  seven  Yearly 
Meetings  were  sustained. 

In  1827,  after  much  preliminary  negotiation,  representa- 
tives of  several  of  the  Yearly  Meetings  assembled  at  Tun- 
bridge,  Vt.,  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of 
organizing  a  General  Conference.  A  week's  discussion 
led  to  no  agreement  as  to  the  functions  of  such  a  body; 
but  Conferences  were  held  from  year  to  year,  brotherly 
love  was  cultivated,  and  by  1833  such  a  degree  of  harmony 
had  been  reached  as  enabled  the  body  to  set  forth  "  A 
Treatise  on  the  Faith  of  the  Free-will  Baptists."  In  1841 
the  Conference  adopted  a  "  Constitution  and  By-Laws." 
The  utmost  diversity  of  opinion  had  manifested  itself  as  to 
the  powers  that  should  be  bestowed  upon  the  Conference. 
One  party  laid  chief  stress  on  church  independency  and 
shrank  from  intrusting  disciplinary  power  to  the  Confer- 
ence;  the  other  party  felt  the  need  of  such  a  check  to  ex- 
treme independency  as  an  authoritative  bod}-,  constituted 
of  delegates  of  the  churches,  would  furnish.  The  consti- 
tution as  adopted  represents  a  compromise  between  the 
independents  and  the  advocates  of  interdependence.  Arti- 
cle VIII.  reads  as  follows  :  "  This  Conference  shall  have  the 
right  to  discipline,  and,  if  necessary,  exclude  such  Yearly 


Chap,  vi.]  FREE-WILL   BATTLSTS. 


497 


Meetings  and  Associations  as  may  be  connected  with  it ; 
but  in  no  case  shall  it  have  power  to  reverse  or  change  the 
decisions  of  churches,  Quarterly  Meetings,  or  Yearly  Meet- 
ings, or  any  other  religious  bodies."  For  a  number  of 
years  many  of  the  churches  looked  with  suspicion  on  the 
Conference ;  but  it  gradually  won  its  way  and  has  proved 
itself  one  of  the  most  effective  agencies  of  the  denomi- 
nation. 

"The  Morning  Star,"  which  first  appeared  in  1826,  was 
from  the  beginning  a  promoter  of  the  Conference  and  its 
objects,  and  has  been  published  continuously  to  the  present 
time.  A  number  of  other  periodicals  were  published  be- 
fore and  have  been  published  since,  but  this  is  the  most 
influential  publication  of  the  denomination. 

In  1833,  under  the  promptings  of  the  English  General 
Baptists,  steps  were  taken  toward  the  inauguration  of  for- 
eign mission  work,  and  in  1837  a  mission  was  opened  in 
northern  India  that  has  been  well  sustained  to  the  present 
time. 

From  1839  onward  the  denomination  took  a  decided 
stand  in  opposition  to  slavery  and  thereby  excluded  itself 
from  eff"ective  work  in  the  South.  In  1841  the  Conference 
so  broadened  its  basis  of  fellowship  as  to  take  in  a  number 
of  Arminian  and  open-communion  Baptist  churches  and 
parties  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Canada.  It  was 
decided  to  welcome  these  bodies  without  change  of  name, 
and  that  thenceforth  "  Free  Baptists,  Free-Communion 
Baptists,  Free-will  Baptists,  and  Open- Communion  Bap- 
tists "  should  be  regarded  as  "  designating  the  same 
people." 

Most  of  the  churches  had  been  formed  by  evangelists, 
who,  after  laboring  for  a  few  weeks  in  a  community, 
hurried  on  to  e\angelize  in  other  places.  In  the  absence 
of  a  settled  ministry  it  was  customary  in  the  earlier  stages 


498  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  iit. 

of  the  movement  for  the  churches  to  appoint  "  ruhng 
elders,"  who  assumed  the  responsibihty  of  conducting  the 
services  and  guiding  the  flock.  From  1819  onward  there 
was  a  growing  sentiment  against  this  office,  many  doubt- 
ing its  Scriptural  authorization.  The  result  was  that  the 
churches  were  left  in  a  deplorably  neglected  condition. 
The  evangelistic  spirit  so  prevailed  among  the  ministers 
that  there  was  little  disposition  to  settle  down  as  pastors 
of  congregations.  Their  evangelistic  tours  were  planned 
independently  and  there  was  no  certainty  that  individual 
communities  would  be  visited  with  any  degree  of  regular- 
ity.     A  regulated  itineracy  became  a  practical  necessity. 

The  question  of  ministerial  support  soon  came  to  be  a 
burning  one.  Randall  had  supported  himself  by  working 
at  his  trade,  and  nearly  all  the  early  ministers  of  the  de- 
nomination were  uneducated  men  who  maintained  them- 
selves by  farming  or  other  secular  avocations.  The  same 
causes  that  led  the  Regular  and  Separate  Baptists  to  look 
with  disfavor  on  a  paid  ministry  were  operative  with  the 
Free-will  Baptists.  The  cities  and  towns  were  for  the  most 
part  neglected.  Lack  of  culture  on  the  part  of  the  minis- 
ters was  doubtless  the  chief  reason  for  their  failure  to  oc- 
cupy the  great  centers  of  influence.  The  importance  of  an 
educated  ministry  was  not  duly  appreciated,  and  ministerial 
education  was  by  many  looked  upon  with  disfavor.  By 
1839  the  leaders  of  the  denomination  had  come  to  feel 
that  an  educated  ministry  was  an  indispensable  condition 
of  denominational  success.  Four  leading  ministers  met 
at  Farmington,  Me.,  and  agreed  to  call  for  an  educa- 
tional convention.  Seventy-six  ministers  responded  to 
the  call.  Resolutions  were  adopted  recognizing  the  fact 
that  those  called  of  God  to  the  work  of  the  ministry 
should  be  suitably  educated,  and  an  education  society  was 
organized. 


Chap,  vi.]  FREE-WILL   BAPTISTS.  499 

The  first  educational  work  attempted  was  in  connection 
with  the  Parsonfield  Seminary.  A  library  was  purchased 
and  provision  was  made  for  theological  instruction.  The 
work  of  the  educational  convention  was  approved  by  the 
General  Conference  in  1841,  and  in  1842  the  educational 
work  was  detached  from  the  seminary  and  transferred  to 
Dracut,  Mass.  Up  to  1853  "cold  neglect  and  cruel  in- 
difference "  characterized  the  attitude  of  the  mass  of  the 
denomination  toward  the  educational  efiforts  of  a  minor- 
ity of  its  members.  .  The  removal  of  a  Baptist  school 
from  New  Hampton  left  what  was  regarded  as  an  excel- 
lent opening  for  the  Free-will  Baptists,  and  with  the  coop- 
eration of  the  people  of  the  place  $15,000  were  raised  and 
the  school  was  reopened  with  excellent  prospects  (1854). 
A  number  of  other  academies  had  been  opened  under  de- 
nominational auspices,  and  up  to  1856,  $220,000  had  been 
invested  in  educational  enterprises. 

In  1855  Hillsdale  College,  Mich.,  began  its  work.  It  has 
been  steadily  gaining  in  strength  and  influence.  Bates 
College,  the  chief  educational  institution  of  the  denomina- 
tion, was  founded  in  1863,  having  previously  existed  as 
the  Maine  State  Seminary.  These  institutions  are  at  pres- 
ent the  pride  of  the  connection  and  are  supported  with 
zeal  and  liberality.  A  large  number  of  schools  of  lower 
grade,  some  of  them  called  colleges,  are  conducted  under 
the  auspices  of  the  body. 

At  an  early  date  the  denomination  took  a  decided  stand 
against  slavery  and  freemasonry,  and  in  favor  of  Sunday- 
schools  and  temperance. 

The  chief  obstacles  to  union  with  the  Baptists  would 
seem  to  be  the  aggressive  open-communion  position  and 
the  Arminian  teaching  of  the  Free-will  Baptists,  or,  from 
the  opposite  point  of  view,  the  restricted-communion  prac- 
tice and  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  Baptists.     It  is  prob- 


500  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

able  that  differences  on  the  communion  question  would 
at  present  be  by  far  the  more  obstinate  element  in  any 
effort  to  harmonize  the  two  denominations. 

The  statistics  for  the  year  ending  September,  1893,  are 
as  follows:  Yearly  Meetings  and  Associations,  more  than 
50;  Quarterly  Meetings,  201;  churches,  1547;  ordained 
ministers,  1338;  church-members,  82,694  ;^  contributions 
to  home  and  foreign  missions  and  education,  $53,905. 

Unaffiliated  with  the  Free-will  Baptists,  but  in  substantial 
accord  with  them,  are  the  Original  Free-will  Baptists  of 
North  and  South  Carolina,  who  are  doubtless  historically 
connected  with  the  Arminian  Baptists  who  first  occupied 
these  regions  under  the  leadership  of  Paul  Palmer  and 
Joseph  Parker,  and  who  now  number  about  12,000;  the 
General  Baptists  of  Arkansas,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Missouri, 
Nebraska,  and  Tennessee,  who  number  about  22,000;  the 
Separate  Baptists  of  Indiana,  who  number  about  1600  ;  the 
United  Baptists  of  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Kentucky,  Mis- 
souri, and  Tennessee,  whose  numbers  exceed  13,000. 
The  Baptist  Church  of  Christ,  which  numbers  8254  com- 
municants in  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  Missouri, 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Texas,  holds  to  a  general 
atonement,  but  seems  in  general  to  be  nearer  to  the  Bap- 
tist position  than  to  that  of  the  Free-will  body. 

The  River  Brethren,  a  Swiss  Anabaptist  party  that 
settled  in  eastern  Pennsylvania  about  1750,  practice  trine 
immersion,  feet-washing,  non-resistance,  and  nonconform- 
ity to  the  world.  They  are  divided  into  three  parties,  and 
have  a  membership,  according  to  the  census  returns  (1890), 
of  3427.  A  majority  of  the  congregations  are  in  Penn- 
syh'ania,  but  some  are  found  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa, 
Kansas,  Marjdand,  Michigan,  New  York,  and  Ohio. 

1  The  numlier  of  communicants   according  to  the  census   returns  of  1890 
is  consideraljly  larger,  namely,  87,898. 


Chap.  VI.]  THE    CHRISTIAXS.  501 

The  Christians  agree  with  the  Free-will  Baptists  in  tlieir 
Arminian  teachings  and  with  the  Disciples  in  their  hostility 
to  creeds.  They  are  at  one  with  the  latter  in  protesting 
against  sects  and  yet  consenting  to  add  another  to  the 
long  list  already  existing.  During  the  first  three  or  four 
years  of  the  present  century  three  independent  movements 
almost  identical  in  aim  and  spirit  originated  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  In  1801  five  Presbyterian  ministers 
of  Kentucky  and  Ohio,  who  were  taking  a  leading  part  in 
the  great  revival  of  the  time,  were  accused  of  teaching  a 
type  of  doctrine  at  variance  with  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion. Becoming  convinced  that  their  views  would  not  be 
tolerated,  they  withdrew  and  formed  the  Springfield  Pres- 
bytery. They  not  only  repudiated  the  Calvinistic  Pres- 
byterian creed,  but  they  insisted  that  the  Bible  alone  is  a 
sufficient  standard  of  faith  and  practice,  declaring  man- 
made  creeds  to  be  useless  and  pernicious.  They  soon 
came  to  feel  that  their  organization  of  a  presbytery  was 
unauthorized  by  Scripture  and  that  the  entire  Presby- 
terian system  of  church  government  was  an  impertinence. 
The  Springfield  Presbytery  was  abandoned  and  the  name 
"  Christian  "  adopted  as  the  only  proper  designation  of  a 
body  of  believers.  Robert  Marshall  became  convinced  of 
the  Scriptural  requirement  of  believers'  baptism  by  immer- 
sion. Barton  W.  Stone  attempted  to  convince  him  of  his 
error  and  was  led  to  the  same  conviction.  They  baptized 
each  other  and  thus  introduced  believers'  baptism  anew. 
Churches  were  organized  in  Kentucky  (1804)  on  the  basis 
of  believers'  baptism  and  the  Bible  as  the  only  standard  of 
faith  and  practice. 

In  1800  Abner  Jones,  a  Baptist  of  Vermont,  became 
greatly  disturbed  "  in  regard  to  sectarian  names  and  human 
creeds,"  and  gathered  a  Christian  church  at  Lyndon,  Vt. 
He  was  joined  by  a  number  of  Baptist  and  Free-will  Bap- 


502  THE  BAPTISTS.  [Per.  hi. 

tist  ministers,  and  within  a  short  time  the  party  had  or- 
ganizations in  most  or  all  of  the  New  England  States,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania. 

Somewhat  earlier  (1792)  James  O'Kelley,  a  Metliodist 
presiding  elder  of  Virginia,  came  into  conflict  with  Bishop 
Asbury  and  his  supporters  with  respect  to  the  functions  of 
bishops.  Failing  to  secure  the  limitation  of  episcopal  au- 
thority that  he  demanded,  he  withdrew  from  the  denomi- 
nation and  organized  a  new  party  under  the  name  "  Re- 
publican Methodists."  A  few  years  later  this  designation 
was  repudiated  in  favor  of  the  name  "  Christian,"  and  the 
Bible  was  declared  to  be  the  sole  and  sufficient  authority 
in  faith  and  practice. 

The  three  "  Christian  "  bodies  were  soon  in  fellowship 
with  one  another  and  a  national  organization  was  effected. 
Stone  and  most  of  his  followers  united  with  Alexander 
Campbell  in  his  "reform"  movement.  In  1854,  at  the 
General  Convention  of  the  Christians  held  in  Cincinnati, 
diff'erences  of  opinion  on  the  slavery  question  led  the 
Southern  churches  to  withdraw.  The  great  majority  of 
the  Christians  hold  to  belie\'ers'  baptism  by  immersion, 
but  do  not  make  baptism  a  condition  of  church-member- 
ship. They  refuse  to  set  up  any  doctrinal  test  for  any 
purpose  whate\'er.  The  type  of  their  teaching  is  a  some- 
what radical  form  of  Arminianism.  They  are  commonly 
supposed  to  incline  toward  antitrinitarianism  ;  but  the  great 
majority  of  them  claim  to  recognize  the  deity  of  Christ 
while  repudiating  non-Scriptural  formulae  with  reference 
to  the  persons  of  the  Godhead.  The  Christians  have  1424 
churches,  with  a  membership  of  103,722  (cf.  \'ol.  i.,  pp. 
91-94,  and  vol.  xii.,  pp.  22-33). 

"The  Church  of  God,"  founded  in  1830  by  John  Wine- 
brenner,  who  had  been  a  member  of  a  Reformed  German 
church  in   Philadelphia,  is  essentially  Baptist.      Sectarian 


CnAi\  VI.]  OTHBIR   BAPTIST  PARTIES.  503 

names  are  repudiated.  The  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures 
without  note  or  comment  as  a  rule  of  faith  and  practice 
and  the  immersion  of  beHevers  are  insisted  upon  and  con- 
stitute the  leading-  features  of  the  party.  The  mov^ement 
grew  out  of  a  revival  in  which  Winebrenner  had  been  in- 
strumental in  the  conversion  of  many.  The  denomination 
has  479  churches,  with  a  membership  of  22,51 1. 

The  Mennonites,  as  is  well  known,  are  historically  closely 
related  to  the  Baptists.  All  agree  with  Baptists  in  rejecting 
infant  baptism,  but  only  a  minority  practice  immersion. 

The  Dunkards  have  much  in  common  with  anti-mission- 
ary (Primitive)  Baptists.  They  insist  upon  the  trine  im- 
mersion of  believers,  and  practice  feet-w^ashing,  love-feasts, 
the  kiss  of  charity,  and  nonconformity  to  the  world  in  the 
matter  of  dress  and  social  demeanor.  They  have  a  three- 
fold ministry  :  bishops,  ministers,  and  deacons.  A  large 
proportion  of  them  are  opposed  to  Sunday-schools,  min- 
isterial education,  and  missions.  The  Dunkards  ha\-e  at 
present  989  churches  and  73,795  members. 

The  United  Brethren  leave  the  mode  of  baptism  to  "  the 
judgment  and  understanding  of  each  individual,"  and  "  the 
baptism  of  children  "  "  to  the  judgment  of  believing  par- 
ents." How  large  a  proportion  of  the  membership  of 
the  body  insist  upon  believers'  baptism  by  immersion  it  is 
impossible  to  determine.  Most  Plymouth  Brethren  and 
Christadelphians,  while  radically  at  variance  with  the  Bap- 
tist position  in  many  respects,  agree  with  Baptists  in  reject- 
ing infant  baptism  and  in  practicing  immersion. 

Of  the  13,900,338  non-Catholic  Christian  communi- 
cants in  the  United  States,  4,604,016,  or  one  third  of  the 
whole,  are  antipedobaptists,  and  more  than  4,560,000  are 
antipedobaptists  and  immersionists.  This  estimate  takes 
no  account  of  Christadelphians,  Ph'mouth  Brethren,  and 
United  Brethren,  and  so  is  within  the  mark.      The  figures 


504  I'^i^  BAPTISTS.  [I'KR.  1,1. 

are  from  the  census  reports  of  1S90  as  compiled  in  vol.  i. 
of  the  present  series. 

During  the  century  ending  with  1890  the  population  of 
the  United  States  increased  from  3,939,214  to  about  63,- 
000,000,  or  about  sixteenfold.  During  the  same  period 
the  Baptists  increased  from  65,345  to  3,717,969,  or  more 
than  fifty-sixfold.  If  other  antipedobaptist  and  immer- 
sionist  parties  were  considered,  the  rate  of  Baptist  increase 
would  be  considerably  larger.  Thus  it  appears  that  from 
1790  to  1890  Baptists  ha^•e  increased  nearly  four  times  as 
fast  as  the  population.  It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Baptists  have  gained  far  less  from  immigration  than  almost 
any  other  of  the  larger  denominations.  Lutherans,  Roman 
Catholics,  Reformed,  Presbyterians,  and  Episcopalians  have 
profited  largely  by  the  great  influx  of  population  from 
Ireland,  Germany,  England,  Scotland,  Italy,  and  the  Scan- 
dinavian and  Slavonic  countries  of  Europe.  Baptist  immi- 
gration has  been  insignificant  in  comparison. 

With  so  large  a  part  of  the  population  of  the  country 
under  the  influence  of  Baptists;  with  prejudices  against 
their  principles  in  great  measure  overcome;  with  principles 
in  thorough  accord  with  the  cherished  civil  institutions  of 
the  nation ;  with  a  constituency  alive  to  the  responsibilities 
and  the  opportunities  that  come  from  past  success ;  with 
home  and  foreign  mission  societies  well  organized,  in  re- 
ceipt of  large  incomes,  and  face  to  face  with  their  work  ; 
with  educational  institutions  of  the  highest  grade  widely 
distributed  throughout  the  country  ;  with  publication  facil- 
ities and  a  religious  press  that  leave  nothing  to  be  desired ; 
with  a  fair  measure  of  wealth  and  social  position,  and  a 
firm  hold  on  the  middle  classes  of  the  population,  the 
achievements  of  Baptists  during  the  coming  century  should 
surpass  those  of  the  past. 


INDEX 


A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  388. 

Adams,  John,  358. 

Adams,  Samuel,  355. 

Ainsworth,  Henry,  38. 

Albion  Academy,  487. 

Alderson,  John,  285,  286. 

Alfred  University,  487. 

Alvoy,  Stephen  d',  344,  345. 

American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 

43O; 
American      Baptist      Congress,     the, 

479; 

American  Baptist  Education  Society, 

47O; 
American  Baptist  Historical  Society, 

479; 

American  Baptist  Home  Mission  So- 
ciety, 420-422. 

American  Baptist  Missionary  Union, 

469; 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society, 

427.  475- 

American  Bible  Society,  428. 

American  Bible  Union,  432. 

Anabaptists,  i  ;  in  the  sixteenth  cent- 
ury, 17;  Germany,  19;  Switzer- 
land, 20 ;  Liberia,  22  ;  Styria  and 
Tyrol,  23  ;  Augsburg,  23 ;  Strass- 
Ijurg,  24  ;  Hesse,  25  ;  Moravia,  26  ; 
Transylvania,  27;  Miinster,  30; 
Italy,   34;    Poland,  35;   principles, 

36. 
"  Analytical  Repository,"  384. 
Anderson,  Martin  B.,  480. 
Antinomians,  97,  109,  120,  122,  129, 

199. 
Antipedobaptists,    5,    8,    14,    22,    54, 

126;  law  against,  126,  136. 


Apostles'  Creed,  the,  5. 

"  Appeal  to  the  Public  for  Religious 

Liberty,"  353. 
Aquidneck,  98,  109. 
Arminian,  5,  90,  196,  234,  242,  256, 

269,  301,  330. 
Armstrong,  James,  404. 
Arnold  01  Brescia,  14. 
Ascherham,  Gabriel,  23. 
Ashniore,  William,  472. 
Athanasian  Creed,  the,  5. 
Augustin,  5,  85. 
Babcock,  Joshua,  263. 
Babcock,  Stephen,  250. 
Backus,    Isaac,    247,    249,    251,    261, 

265,  348,  352,  356,  35S,  361. 
Bailey,  W.  E.,  407. 
Baklwin,  Thomas,  384,  385,  389,  391. 
Baptism,    name,     i  ;     principles,     i  ; 

root    in    the    primitive    church,  8 ; 

casualities    of    the   dark    ages,    11  ; 

the  twelfth  century,  13. 
"  Baptist,"  the,  of  Tennessee,  425. 
Baptist  Association,  349. 
Baptist  educational  institutions,  482. 
Baptist   General    Tract   Society,   the, 

426. 
"  Baptist     Memorial     and     Monthly 

Chronicle,"  the,  426. 
"  Baptist  Quarterly,"  the,  426. 
Baptist    Society  for   I'ropagating   the 

Gospel  in  India  and  other  Foreign 

Parts,  391. 
Baptists  and  the  magistracy,  127. 
Baptists  of  the  twelfth  century,  13. 
Barebone,  P.,  49,  52. 
Barnett,  Joseph,  334. 
Baylor  University,  481. 


505 


5o6 


INDEX. 


Beaver  Association,  494. 

Bedgewood,  Nicholas,  316. 

Believers'    baptism,    22,    38,    73,   80, 
390- 

Bell,  T.  B.,  462. 

Bellingham,  Governor,  184,  189. 

Bengali  Scriptures,  the,  428. 

Bennet,  Job,  261,  263. 

Bethel  Association,  314. 

Bethel  church,  the,  342. 

Blacklock,  50. 

Blake,  Humphrey,  223. 

Blake,  Joseph,  223. 

Blood,  Caleb,  268. 

Blunt,  John,  245. 

Blunt,  Richard,  49. 

Board  of  Tryers,  54. 

Bohemian  Brethren,  6,  16,  17. 

Bolles,  Dr.,  390,  391,  420. 

lioone,  Daniel,  2,ZZ^  343. 

Boone,  Squire,  2)1)2>- 

Boston  Female  Society  for  Missionary 
Purposes,  384. 

Botsford,  Edmund,  311,  316,  317. 

Boucher,  Thomas,  259. 

Bound,  James,  259. 

Boyce,  J.  P.,  462,  466. 

Brantly,  William  T.,   307,   381,   392, 

404. 
Brentwood  church,  the,  268. 
Bright,  Edward,  4^4. 
Br  sbane,  John,  309. 
Br  ad  River  Association,  314. 
Broaddus,  Andrew,  T^ii,. 
Broadus,  John  A.,  466.  ■• 
Brown,  Chad,  84,  88,  94. 
Brown,  James,  167,  168,  253. 
Brown,  Nicholas,  263. 
Brown  University,  261  ;  charter,  262 
removal  to  Providence,  264,  3S0. 
Browne,  Robert,  38. 
Bryan,  Andrew,  320,  331. 
Bucer,  24. 

Bucknell  University,  481. 
Bunyan,  John,  53. 
Burkitt,  Lemuel,  291. 
Burleson,  Rufus  C,  481. 
Burmese  mission,  the,  471. 
Burrage,  Henry  S.,  425. 
Bushyhead,  John,  445. 
Callender,  Ellis,  195,  196. 
Callender,  John,  117. 


Calloway,  Richard,  333. 

Calvinists,  5,  86,  198,  239,  256,  301, 
488. 

Cambridge  Platform,  182. 

Campbell,  Alexander,  441,  488,  490, 
495,  502. 

Campbell,  Jesse  H.,  411. 

"  Campbellism  Examined,"  489. 

Capito,  25. 

Cardross,  Lord,  223. 

Carey,  Lot,  402. 

Carey,  William,  55. 

Carlstadt,  19,  28. 

Carman,  Joshua,  339. 

Catabaptists,  i,  136. 

Cedar  Creek,  334. 

Cent  Societies,  384. 

Chandler,  C.  C,  417. 

Chaney,  Bailey  E.,  345. 

Chanler,  Isaac,  308,  309,  368,  380. 

Chaplin,  Jeremiah,  406,  408. 

Charles  IL,  letter  from,  191. 

Charleston  Association,  310,  316,  381, 
407. 

Charleston  Bible  Society,  313. 

Charlestown,  222,  224. 

Chase,  I  rah,  396,  399. 

Chauncy,  Charles,  133,  155,   157. 

Chiliastic  anabaptism,  20,  37. 

Chinese  mission,  460. 

"  Christian  Chronicle,"  the,  424. 

"  Christian  Index,"  the,  411. 

"  Christian  Messenger,"  the,  425. 

"  Christian  Reflector,"  the,  445. 

"  Christian  Secretary,"  the,  425. 

Christian  union,  7. 

Church,  Pharcellus,  424. 

Church  and  state,  separation  of,  63, 

69. 
"  Church  of  God,"  the,  502. 
Churchwood,  Humphrey,  217,  219. 
Clark,  John,  343. 

Clarke,  John,  50,  69,  75,  81  ;  birth, 
education,  arrival  at  Boston,  96  ;  re- 
lation to  antinomianism,  97  ;  settled 
at  Aquidneck,  98 ;  the  foundation 
act,  100;  "111  News  from  New 
England,"  loi  ;  the  annulment  of 
Coddington's  charter,  104;  the 
charter  of  Rhode  Island,  105  ;  char- 
acter, 107;  death,  112,  134;  theses 
for  clisi)utation,   137. 


IXDEX. 


507 


Clay,  Joseph,  322. 

Clayton,  Thomas,  207. 

"  Clementine  Recognitions,"  9,  10. 

Clough,  J.  E.,  470. 

Coddington,   William,    75,    98,    104, 

109,  119,  122. 
Coggeshall,  109. 
Cohansey,  205. 
Colby  University,  406. 
Colgate  University,  479. 
Collegiants,  53. 
Collins,  Henry,  125. 
"Columbian  Star,"  the,  400,  423,  427. 
Colver,  Nathaniel,  444. 
Comer,  John,  114,  117,  198,  230. 
Communism,  26,  27. 
Conant,  Thomas  J.,  432. 
Condy,  Jeremiah,  196,  256. 
Cone,  Spencer  H.,  444. 
Confession   of   Faith,   October,  1644, 

Congaree  Association,  the,  314. 

Connection  between  American  Bap- 
tists and  Particular  Baptists,  50. 

Controversy  between  Roger  Williams 
and  the  Massachusetts  authorities, 
62. 

Convention  of  1827  (constitution), 
404. 

Cook,  Joseph,  311. 

Cooke,  John,  112. 

Cooper  River,  settlement  on,  221, 
222. 

Corahism,  182. 

Cornelius,  John,  205. 

Cornell,  Joseph,  385. 

Correspondence  between  the  Eng- 
lish Baptists  and  the  Mennonites  of 
Holland,  45. 

Cote,  W.  N.,  460. 

Cotton,  John,  62,  66,  68;  controversy 
with  Roger  Williams,  70,  120,  121, 
138. 

Craig,  Elijah,  298. 

Crandall,  Joseph,  in,  115,  134,   138. 

Cromwell,  54,  75,  113. 

Cromwell,  William,  423. 

Crozer  Theological  Seminary,  480. 

Cuban  mission,  the,  457. 

Cudworth,  James,  158. 

Cumberland  Association,  337,  338. 

Curtis,  Richard,  Jr.,  344,  345,  346. 


Cyprian,  12. 

Uabney,  John,  257. 

Davis,  John,  349,  352. 

Davis,  William,  207. 

Dean,  William,  472. 

Deane,  "  History  of  Scituate,"  158. 

Denck,  18,  23,  25,  28. 

Denison  University,  416. 

Dexter,  Gregory,  85,  86,  87,  91,  112. 

Diaz,  Alberto  J.,  457. 

Dingley,  Richard,  113. 

"  Disciples,"  492,  493. 

Dorchester  petition,  the,  129. 

Dorris,  Joseph,  337. 

Doughty,  Francis,  233. 

Dover  church,  the,  281. 

Dudley,  Ambrose,  337. 

Dungan,  Elder,  202. 

Dunham,  204. 

Dunster,  Henry,  134;  birth  and  edu- 
cation, 139;  Confession  of  Faith, 
140;  arrival  in  New  England,  141  ; 
president,  142;  marriage,  144;  ori- 
ental studies,  145  ;  conversion,  146  ; 
conference,  152;  verdict,  153;  res- 
ignation, 154;  removal,  157;  cleath, 
161. 

Dyke,  Daniel,  193. 

Eager,  J.  H.,  460. 

Easton,  109. 

Eaton,  Mrs.,  232. 

Eaton,  T.  T.,  425. 

Edes,  Philip,  113. 

Edisto  Island,  228. 

Education  Fund,  381,  407. 

Education  Society  of  the  Middle 
States,  the  Baptist,  381. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  241. 

Edwards,  Morgan,  261,  263,  276, 
278,  297. 

"  Elements  of  Moral  Science,"  445. 

Elk  River  Association,  338. 

Elkhorn  Association,  337. 

Endicott,  Governor,  136. 

P^phrata  community,  the,  209. 

Episcopal  minister  of  Charleston,  the, 
224. 

"  Examiner,"  the,  424. 

Exclusion  of  Baptists  from  all  civil 
privileges  in  Massachusetts,  120. 

Eyres,  Nicholas,  234,  262. 

Elyres,  Thomas,  263. 


5o8 


INDEX. 


P'aniilism,  121. 

Farmington  (Southington),  231. 

Farnuni,  John,  179,  184. 

Feeks,  Robert,  235. 

Findley,  Samuel,  280. 

First  Baptist  Churcli  of  Boston,  174; 

confession  of  faith,  177;  fines,  178; 

disputation,  179,  182;  service  upon 

Noddle's  Island,  186;  persecutions, 

188;  meeting-house,  190,  197,  256. 
First  Baptist  Church  of  New  York,  281 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Newport,  88, 

96;  dissensions,  109,  255. 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Philadelphia, 

205. 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Providence, 

80,  83  ;  controversies,  85  ;  division, 

87;   history  till    1 770,  95;   Armin- 

ian,  253. 
First  Colored  Baptist  Church,  320. 
Fishkill  church,  the,  282. 
Ford,  Reuben,  370,  371. 
Foreign  missions,  460,  461. 
Foster,  Benjamin,  255. 
Framingham,  247. 
Franklin  College,  417. 
Free-will  Baptists,  270,  495,  499,  501. 
Fristoe,  Daniel,  287. 
Fuller,  Andrew,  55. 
Furman,  Richard,  312,  321,  383,  385, 

395.  402. 
Gano,  John,  280,  281,  284,  295,  311, 

335- 

Gano,  Stephen,  338. 

Garcia,  Francis,  308. 

Gardner,  John,  261. 

Garrard  (Garret),  John,  285,  296,  334. 

General  Association,  367. 

General  Baptists  in  England,  38 ;  sep- 
aration from  other  separatist  con- 
gregations, 40;  controversies,  41  ; 
after  1626  progress,  47;  character- 
istics, 69,  85. 

General  Committee  of  the  Georgia 
Baptists,  323,  328,  329,  369. 

General  Meeting  of  Correspondence, 

306. 

General  Missionary  Convention  of  the 
Baptist  Denomination  in  the  United 
States  of  America  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, 393. 

Georgetown,  227. 


Georgetown  College,  417. 

Georgia  Association,  318. 

German  Baptists,  470. 

Gnosticism,  8,  9,  12. 

Going,  Jonathan,  416,  419. 

Gorton,  .Samuel,  76,  99. 

Gorton,  Stephen,  231. 

Gould,  Thomas,  157,  174,  175,  176. 

Granville,  Lord,  225. 

Granville    Literary    and    Theological 

Institution,  416. 
Graves,  J.  R.,  425,  494. 
Great    Awakening,  statistics   of   the, 

271. 
Great  Valley,  208. 
Green,  David,  342. 
Griffith,  Benjamin,  275,  280,  285. 
Griffith,  Thomas,  208. 
Gross,  Jacob,  25. 
Groton,  231. 

Ilackett,  Horatio  B.,  432. 
Half-way  Covenant,  182,  240. 
Hall,  Nathaniel,  330. 
Hall,  Robert,  54,  55. 
Hand,  J.  R.,  411. 
Haralson,  Jonathan,  462. 
Harding,  109. 
Harper,  William  R.,  481. 
Harris,  J.  H.,  481. 
Harris,  Samuel,  295,  299. 
Harris,  William,  91. 
Hart,  Oliver,  278,  309,  316. 
Hartwell,  J.,  407. 
Harvard  College,  133,  134,  142,  145, 

197,  244. 
Hascall,  Daniel,  409. 
Hatzer,  Ludwig,  23,  25. 
Haverhill,  258,  265. 
Hawley,  Major,  360. 
Hayne,  William,  444. 
Hays,  Edward,  284. 
Hazell,  John,  138. 
Heaton,  Samuel,  285. 
Helwys,  Thomas,  41,  42. 
Henry,  Nicholas,  121. 
Henry,  Patrick,  365,  369. 
Henry  of  Lausanne,  13. 
Hepzibah  Association,  the,  434. 
"  Herald,  The  Religious,"  424. 
Hernias,  9. 

Hickman,  William,  2)^^- 
Hicks,  Jacob,  258. 


IXDEX. 


509 


Ililnian,  W. ,  404. 

Ilofmann,  Melchior,  25,  27. 

Hofniannitc's,  28. 

Holcombe,  Henry,  320,  321,  322,  38'4. 

Holliman,  Ezekiel,  79,  84. 

Holmes,  J.  L.,  460. 

Holmes,  Obadiah,  iii,  112,  131,  134, 
138. 

Holmes,  Obadiah,  Jr.,  205. 

Holston  Association,  336. 

Hooper,  Dr.,  408. 

Hopewell,  209,  276. 

Hovey,  Alvali,  480. 

Hubbard,  Samuel,  no,  124,  179, 
187. 

Hubmaier,  18,  21,  23,  26. 

Hulbert,  Eri  B.,  480. 

Hull,  Elder,  220. 

Hut,  Hans,  23,  26. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  97;  charac- 
ter and  teachings,  120. 

Huther,  Jacob,  23,  27. 

Hutherites,  27. 

"  111  News  from  New  England,"  loi, 

134- 
Ilston,  163. 
Immersion,  4,  41,  80,  137,  144,  155, 

342,  344,  390,  428. 
Imposition  of  hands,  85,  86,  115,  214. 
Indians,  the,  61,  64,   144,   197,  292. 
Infant  baptism,   2,  3,  10,  20,  22,  31, 

40,  51,  136. 
Irelantl,  James,  287. 
Jacob,  Henry,  48. 
Jaret  (Garrard),  John,  285. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  370,  375. 
Jenckes,  Daniel,  261,  263,  355. 
Jenkins,  Nathaniel,  212. 
Jessey,  H.,  49,  52,  53. 
Johnson,  Francis,  38,  48. 
Johnson,  Thomas,  342. 
Johnson,  W.  B.,  406. 
Jones,  R.  S.,  262. 
Jones,  Samuel,  262,  279. 
Judson,  389,  394,  419. 
Justin  Martyr,  9. 
Kautz,  Jacob,  25. 
Keach,  Elias,  202,  204. 
Kehukee  Association,  290,  307. 
Keith,  George,  206. 
Keithian  Quakers,  207. 
Kentlrick,  Nathaniel,  408. 


Ketokton  Association,  278,  285,  287, 
^^  296,  301,  334,  371. 

Key  into  the  Language  of  America, " 

the,  61,  91. 
Kiftin,  William,  48,  53,  138,  193. 

Kiffin  Manuscript,"  the,  52. 
Killingsworth,  203. 
Kincaid,  Eugenio,  409. 
Kittery,  Me.,  197,  216,  220. 
Kloster,  Gertom,  31. 
Knipperdollinck,  32. 
Knollys,  Hanserd,  51,  52,  203. 
Lady  Moody,  124,  232. 
Langenmantel,  Eitelhans,  24. 
Lasher,  G.  W.,  425. 
Lathrop,  John,  48,  158. 
"  Latter  Day  Luminary,"  400,  423. 
Lechford,  "  Plain  Dealing,"  144. 
Ledbetter,  Elder,  294. 
Leile  (Sharp),  George,  320. 
Leland,    John,    305,    371;    letter    to 

Washington,  372,  375. 
Lenthall,  Robert,  109,  123. 
Leyden,  John  of,  31. 
Lil^erty  of  conscience,  44,  60,  62,  72  ; 

limitations  of,  77,  79,  102,  170,  365. 
Lincoln,  Heman,  420. 
Lollardism,  6,  38,  164. 
Lord's  Supper,  the,  11. 
Lukar,  Mark,  50,  iii,  112. 
Luther,  18,  19. 
Luther,  Samuel,  172,  173. 
Lyndon,  Josias,  261. 
Lynn,  Benjamin,  334. 
Mack,  Alexander,  209. 
Maclay,  Dr.  A.,  420. 
MacVickar,  Dr.  M.,  474. 
Madison,    James,    370;     his    amend- 
ments, 374. 
Maginnis,  J.  S.,  408. 
Maine,  Baptist  organizations  in,  269. 
Manichjeism,  12. 
Manly,  Basil,  307. 
Manning,  James,  253,  261,  265,  278, 

304,  311. 
Mansfield,  245. 
Marbeck,  Pilgram,  25,  28. 
Marblehead,  the  land  grant  at,  66. 
Marshall,  Abraham,  319,  323. 
Marshall,  Daniel,  286,  292,  294,  314, 

317-  319- 
Marshall,  William,  t,t,2,. 


5IO 


INDEX. 


Martha's  Vineyard,  198. 

Martin,  Thomas,  207. 

Mascall's  letter,  Robert,  184. 

Mason,  George,  371. 

Mason,  John,  339. 

Massachusetts,  the  revised  law-book 
of,  1672,  188. 

Massachusetts  authorities,  character- 
ization of,  119. 

"  Massachusetts  Baptist  Missionary 
Magazine,"  384. 

Massachusetts  Domestic  Missionary 
Society,  385. 

Mather,  Cotton,  147,  151,  175,  195. 

Matthys,  Jan,  29. 

Maxwell,  Samuel,  172. 

Mayhew,  Thomas,  198. 

Meeting  of  October  14,  1774,  357. 

Melanchthon,  19. 

Meli,  P.  H.,  462. 

Menno  Simons,  33. 

Mennonites,  t^^,  38,  42,  45,  231,  232. 

Mercer,  Jesse,  319,  321,  323,  326, 
410. 

Mercer,  Silas,  319. 

Mercer  University,  329. 

Methodists,  7,  304,  330. 

Miami  Association,  339. 

Middleljorough,  252. 

Middletown,  204. 

Miller,  Benjamin,  281,  284. 

Milton,  John,  54,  105,  140. 

Mintz,  Caspar,  289. 

Missions  among  the  Germans,  458. 

Mitchell,  147,  148,  150. 

Moore,  Matthew,  320. 

Moravian  Brethren,  6,  7,  315. 

Morgan,  Abel,   205,  212,  279. 

Morse,  Zenas,  409. 

Moulton,  Ebenezer,  199. 

Mount  Enon  Academy,  321,  328. 

Mumford,  Stephen,  no. 

Miinster,  30. 

Miinzer,  Thomas,  18,  19. 

Murphy,  William,  299. 

"  Murjihy  boys,  the,"  295. 

Murton,  John,  42. 

Musick,  Thomas  R.,  343. 

Myles,  John,  162  ;  life  in  Wales,  163  ; 
arrival  at  Rehoboth,  167;  arraign- 
ment, 168;  settled  at  Swansea,  169; 
death,  172. 


Narragansett  Bay,  62. 

"Narrative"  of  Elder  Russell,  the, 
112. 

New  Design  church,  341. 

"  New  England's  First  Fruits,"  143. 

New  Hampshire  Association,  the,  268. 
j  New  Lights,  the,  243,  249,  254,  256, 

380. 
I  New  London,  231. 
!  "  New  York   Baptist   Register,"  the, 
424. 

New  York  Baptists,  statistics  of,  283. 

"  New  York  Chronicle,"  the,  424. 

"  New  York  Recorder,"  the,  424. 

Newman,  Samuel,  131. 

Newport,  88,  96,  109,  116. 

Newton  Theological  Institution,  480. 

Nicene  Creed,  the,  5. 

Nordin,  Robert,  230. 

Northrup,  George  W.,  480. 

Cakes,  Urian,  189. 

Oath  of  the  unregenerate,  the,  66. 

Oglethorpe,  General,  315. 

Okison,  204. 

"  Old  Baptist  Banner,"  the,  438. 

"  Old-Landmarkism,"  494. 

Olmstead,  J.  W.,  42^. 

Olney,  Thomas,  84,  85,  87,  88. 

Oncken,  J.  G.,  470. 

Paine,  Solomon,  250. 

Painter,  of  Hinghani,  125. 

Palestine,  mission  work  in,  486. 

Palmer,  Paul,  289,  307,  500. 

Parker,  Daniel,  398. 

Parker,  Joseph,  289,  307,  500. 

Particular  Baptists  in  England,  48 ; 
conferences  and  split,  51;  Confes- 
sion cf  Faith,  52 ;  approachment 
between  General  and  Particular 
Baptists,  55,  193. 

Peartt,  William,  228. 

Peck,  John  M.,  397,  413,  423. 

Peckham,  William,  113. 

Pedobaptists,  136. 

Peedee  River,  settlement  on,  229. 

Pelot,  Francis,  316. 

Penfield,  Josiah,  411. 

Penn,  William,  201. 

Pennepek,  202,  211. 

Peter  de  Bruys,  13. 

Peter  Chelcicky,  15. 

Peter  the  Venerable,   13. 


IXDEX. 


511 


Phelps,  S.  D.,  425. 

Philip  of  Hesse,  25. 

Piscataqua,  203. 

Plymouth  settlement  in  its  relation  to 
Salem  colony,  119,  162,  168. 

Port  Royal  Island,  223. 

Powell,  Vavasour,  54,  163,  166. 

Pratt,  John,  416. 

' '  Presentment  by  the  Grand  Inquest, " 
1652,  132. 

"  Primitive  Baptist,"  the,  438. 

Proctor,  John,  257. 

Proud,  Thomas,  163. 

Providence,  foundation  of,  74 ;  First 
Baptist  Church,  80,  'ii^,  85,  160. 

Pugh,  Evan,  311. 

Puritans'  conception  of  the  Baptists, 
the,  122. 

Quakers,  78,  82,  112,  115,  158,  191, 
200,  206,  229. 

Quincy,  143. 

Randall,  Benjamin,  269. 

Rebaptism,  16,  18,  41,  136. 

Red  River  Association,  338. 

Reforming  Synod,  the,  191. 

Regenerate  membership,  3,  79. 

Rehoboth,  131,  132,  251,  257. 

Reynolds,  J.  L.,  408. 

Rhode  Island,  foundation  of,  74 ;  rec- 
ognition by  the  English  govern- 
ment, 75;  the  foundation  act,  100; 
the  annulment  of  Coddington's 
charter,  104 ;  the  charter  of  Rhode 
Island,  105,  160. 

Rhode  Island  College,  253,  260,  265, 

311- 

Rhynsburgers,  53. 

Rice,  Luther,  390,  392,  399,  405, 
427. 

Richards,  Lewis,  311. 

Richmond  Baptist  African  Mission- 
ary Society,  402. 

Rink,  Melchior,  26. 

Ripley,  Henry  J.,  400. 

Rish worth,  Edward,  219. 

River  Brethren,  500. 

Roberts,  Edward,  159. 

Roberts,  George,  367. 

Roberts,  John  M.,  407. 

Robertson,  Robert,  54. 

Robinson,  John,   1 18. 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  477. 


Rothmann,  Bernard,  30. 
Russell's  "  Narrative,"  193. 
Rutter,  Thomas,  207. 
Ryland,  Robert,  415. 
Sabbatarians,  iii,  214,  486. 
Salem  colony  in  its  relation  to  Plym- 
outh settlement,  1 19. 
Salem    Quarterly   Court,    1642,    124; 

1644,  124;  1646,  125. 
Saluda  Association,  314. 
Sanders,  B.  M.,  412. 
Sands,  William,  424. 
Sandy  Creek,  314,  336. 
Sanford,  S.  P.,  412. 
Sayle,  William,  222. 
Schwenckfeldt,  22,  121. 
Scioto  Association,  339. 
Scituate,  158. 
Screven,  William,  216,  218,  220,  221, 

227,  309. 
Scripture  as  the  norm  of  faith,  2,  4. 
Scott,  Richard,  84. 
Sears,  Barnas,  409. 
Second    Baptist    Church    of    Boston, 
^  257,  349. 

Seekonk  disturbance,  the,  130. 
Selby,  Thomas,  208,  212. 
Separate    Baptists    in   Virginia,    298, 

300;  Confession,  301. 
Seventh-day      Baptists,      110,      204, 

486. 
Severn's  Valley,  334. 
Sharp,  David,  469. 
Sherwood,  Dr.  A.,  410. 
Sicke  P'rierichs,  33. 
"  Signs  of  the  Times,"  the,  438. 
Silver  Creek  Association,  340. 
Simmons,  Thomas,  228. 
Six    Principle    Baptists,  87,   91,    iii, 

116,  198,  257. 
Skinner,  Thomas,  113,  192. 
Slavery,  305,  374- 
Smith,  Ebenezer,  350,  351. 
Smith,  Hezekiah,  259,  263,  265,  266, 

269,  278. 
Smith,  James,  341. 
Smith,  John  (U.  S.  Senator),  339. 
vSrnith,  Ralph,  118. 
Smyth,  John,  39,  80. 
Socinianism,  45,  239. 
Sojourner,  William,  289. 
Somerton,  218. 


512 


rXDEX. 


Southern  Baptist  Theological  Semi- 
nary, 465. 

Southern  Baptists,  separate  organiza- 
tion of,  451. 

Southern  State  conventions,  447. 

Southington,  231. 

Spilsbury,  John,  49,  138. 

Spur,  John,  138. 

Spurgeon,  Charles  H.,  54. 

Squire,  Philip,  190,   192. 

Stanford  church,  the,  282. 

Statistics  of  18 12,  379. 

Statistics  of  home  missions,  455. 

Staughton,  William,  280,  382,  385, 
417. 

Stearns,  Shubael,  286,  292,  296. 

Stiles,  Ezra,  261. 

Stillman,  Samuel,  256,  263,  309,  311, 

35o>  361. 
Stoll,  David,  309. 
Stone,  Barton  W.,  502. 
Storch,  Nicholas,  19,  20,  22. 
Strassburg,  tolerance  of,  24. 
Sturbridge,  245. 
Sutton,  John,  339. 
Swansea,  16S,  190,  198,  253,  257. 
Sweden,  missions  in,  470. 
Tackamason,  John,  198. 
Talbot,  Matthew,  330. 
Tate's  Creek,  335. 
Taylor,  G.  B.,  460. 
Taylor,  John,  337. 
"  Teacher,"  the,  462. 
Teague,  Collin,  402. 
Tennent,  Gilliert,  241. 
Tennent,  William,  241. 
Tertullian,  9,  1 1. 
Thomas,  David,  286,  296. 
Tinsley,  David,  330. 
Tinsley,  Thomas,  t,t,t,. 
Titicut,  248. 
Tiziano,  34. 
Tobey,  T.  W.,  460. 
Tombes,  John,  53. 
Tookey,  Elias,  46. 
Torrey,  Joseph,  III,  1 12. 
Tuckaseeking,  316. 
Turner,  William,  180,  186,  189. 
Unitarianism,  240. 
'■  United  Baptist  Churches  of  Christ, 

in  Virginia,"  302. 
"  United  Baptists  "  in  Kentucky,  335. 


"  United  Colonies  of  New  England, 

The,"  141. 
Unregenerate,  the,  65,  68,  72. 
Van  Home,  356. 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  74,  92,  121. 
Vassar  College,  483. 
Vaughan,  William,  91,  iii. 
Vermont  Baptist  churches,  268. 
Wabash     District    Association,    340, 

341- 
Wade,  Jonathan,  409. 
Waldenses,  6,  15,  17. 
Waldo,  Samuel,  282. 
Walker,  Jeremiah,  330,  367. 
Waller,  John,  296,  298. 
Wallingford,  231. 
Ward,  Samuel,  261,  263. 
Warren    Association,   the,    26;,    278, 

348,  357,  380. 
Washington's  reply  to  Leland's  letter, 

373- 

"  Watchman,  The  Christian,"  423. 

Wayland,  H.  L.,  424,  447. 

Weeden,  William,  ill,  112. 

Welch,  James  E.,  397,  423. 

Welsh  Baptists,  162. 

Welsh  Tract  church,  the,  208,  229, 
230. 

Wesley,  John,  6,  47,  241. 

West,  Nat.,  125. 

W^estern  Baptist  Theological  Insti- 
tute, 417. 

"Western  Recorder,"  the,  425,  445. 

Westminster  Confession,  Baptist  re- 
cension of  the,  55. 

Weston,  Henry  G.,  481. 

Wheaton,  Ephraim,  172. 

Wheelwright,  John,  120. 

Whitaker,  John,  -^,11. 

White,  Daniel,  113,  115. 

White,  Esther,  246. 

White,  Thomas,  230. 

Whitefield,  47,  241,  242,  244,  269, 
292,  309. 

Whitman,  S.  S.,  409. 

Wickenden,  William,  85,  89,  112,  233. 

Wickes,  Benjamin,  385. 

Wiclifism,  6. 

Wiedemann,  Jacob,  26. 

Wightman,  Daniel,  235. 

Wightman,  Valentine,  231,  234,  257. 

Willard,  Samuel,  194. 


INDEX. 


513 


Willet,  Captain,  169. 

Williams,  John,  298,  300,  367. 

Williams,  Roger,  birth,  studies,  pros- 
pects in  England,  59 ;  arrival  in 
New  England,  60 ;  Boston,  Salem, 
Plymouth,  61  ;  "  The  Key  into  the 
Language  of  America,"  61  ;  ban- 
ished, settles  at  Narragansett  Bay, 
62  ;  review  of  the  controversy,  64  ; 
ideas  of  relation  between  church 
and  state,  70  ;  controversy  with  Cot- 
ton, 71  ;  foundation  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and, 74  ;  recognition  by  the  English 
government,  75  ;  limitations  of  the 
liberty  of  conscience,  77 ;  rebap- 
tized,  79 ;  foundation  of  the  first 
Baptist  church  in  America,  80 ; 
doubts,  81  ;  relation  to  Dexter,  92. 

Willoughby,  Francis,  184. 

Wilson's  declaration,  182. 


!  Winebrenner,  John,  502. 

!  Winslow's  "  Brief  Narration,"  132. 

Winsor,  Samuel,  253. 

Winthrop,  Governor,  121,  144. 

Witter,  William,  124,  135. 

Woman's    Baptist   mission    societies, 

Wonder-Working         Providence," 
142. 
Yale  College,  244. 
I  Yates,  M.  T.,  460. 
;  Yates,  Thomas,  284. 
'  "  Yearly  Association,"  1729,  116. 
Yoruba  mission,  460. 
Young   People's   Union  of   America, 

the  Baptist,  478. 
Zell,  24. 

"  Zion's  Advocate,"  425. 
Zwickau,  19. 
I  Zwingli,  20. 


